Opponents of sugar buyout hire lots of lobbyists

Lots of lobbyists are roaming the halls of the Legislature making the case against the state spending $1.34-billion to buy U.S Sugar's land for Everglades restoration, according to Audubon of Florida's Eric Draper and state Department of Environmental Protection secretary Mike Sole.

"The halls have been tense," Sole told an audience at the annual Everglades Coalition meeting in Miami today. The lobbyists are having an impact, he said, because the DEP is seeing "pushback" from some lawmakers opposing the buyout first publicly announced by Gov. Charlie Crist, above, in June.

Opponents of the state buyout, including rival buyer the Lawrence Group and sugar giant Florida Crystals, are employing "some of the strongest, most influential lobbyists in Tallahassee" to persuade lawmakers to halt the deal, Draper told the crowd. "A considerable amount of money is being spent to oppose this very good deal."

Craig Pittman, Times staff writer

(Associated Press photo)

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Comments

Who are they Craig? Report, don't innuend. People buy papers when there is news in them.

Has US SUgar hired anyone to push through their bailout?

The Lawerence Group isn't listed as having any lobbyists.

*Lawrence

Rollback taxes and spending to 2002 levels, cap taxation and spending at the annual CPI going forward, expand SOH to all property both residential and commercial, and vote every incumbent out of office at your first available opportunity... oh, and don't waste my taxes on corporate welfare!

Problem Solved!

I find it odd that the Times says the "state" is spending $1.34 billion when they have reported, time and again, that the South Florida Water Management District is the entity that is purchasing US Sugar.

There is a huge difference between the 2. The main difference is that as a Tampa resident, not one dime of my tax money is being used.

“There is a huge difference between the 2.”

You’re right! One is a body of pinheaded criminals that steal our money on a grand scale, and the other is an unnecessary bureaucracy used as a training ground for future pinheaded criminals.

Spend a few 100 grand enforcing the pollution laws and in a few years US Sugar will gladly give us the land they've ruined just to escape the cleanup costs.

2:35,

I don't disagree with you but I think that as an ostensibly responsible media outlet, the Times should make the distinction. Otherwise, people who do not live within the District's 16 County taxing area might get the mistaken impression that their tax dollars are going towards the acquisition.

Or maybe, just maybe the Times does this on purpose to incite a reaction from an otherwise misinformed public.

2:54 - AMEN!

Can we build condos on the land we are buying?

DO you want a condo in the middle of BFE?

no one hired me!

The Lawrence Group isn't listed as having any lobbyists....so there something wrong in what you wrote, Craig. Who did they hire if you are reporting that to be a fact?

[Ted Guy]

Craig,

I was there and that's not what I heard Sole and Draper say. I suggest you re-check with both of them.

Ted Guy