Florida Senate Shifts Funding from Environment to School Programs.

Publication: The Miami Herald (Miami, Florida) (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News)

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COPYRIGHT 2001 The Miami Herald

Byline: Steve Bousquet

Mar. 24--TALLAHASSEE, Fla.--Upsetting Gov. Jeb Bush and environmentalists in a single stroke, the Florida Senate on Thursday shifted $100 million from a popular land-buying program to boost spending on schools and healthcare for the poor -- two areas senators say are more important in lean times.

Environmentalists called the move an "unprecedented raid," and Bush called it "bad policy" to siphon money from the program -- which buys threatened or environmentally sensitive land -- and that it could undermine a 10-year agreement between the state and Congress on Everglades restoration in its second year.

Bush's top environmental advisor, David Struhs, said the vote is especially ill-timed because it comes at a time of "the worst drought in our state's history."

The vote by the Senate Appropriations...

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