Today the Florida Legislature is one week into the 2003 legislative session.  The driving big-picture issue this session was presented by the Governor in the State of the State address.  Dollars.  Our state is facing reportedly the worst budget crisis in a decade.  And the Governor recommends that the Florida Legislature create a one-time $40 million dollar contingency fund, drawn from state reserves.  Why?  To address economic and domestic security efforts in the event of war.  Maybe this time next month America will be at war.  Maybe not.  With these overwhelming big-picture issues dominating the world including the Florida Legislature, the work on environmental and land use legislation is not ambitious.  The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (“FDEP”) has two substantive priority bills. 

     One bill on performance-based permitting, and another on global risk-based corrective action. The latter of these continues to be the focus of workshops, meetings, and discussions. The state continues to struggle with water consumption issues and solutions.  There are several water bills that will be the subject of debate this session.    In regard to land use legislation, the driving issue is whether the planned merger of the Florida Department of Community Affairs and the Department of State will happen.  Again, it depends on how well a case is made to show dollars saved by the proposed merger.  There is one glitch bill that is of interest to the land use practice.  Remember that we now have a 4 member Cabinet – the Governor, Attorney General, Chief Financial Officer, and Agricultural Commissioner. 

     As you know, the Cabinet also sits as the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund (“BOT”), which under current law, can only act on state lands issues by a vote of at least 5.  It took a meeting of the BOT to realize that the law needed to be revised so that the BOT (new Cabinet) could conduct state lands business.  Overall, I feel that the times are not as exciting as they are tense.  It’s not a time for individual ambitions.  In fact, it’s more a time for pooling together resources and holding your own.  So much has changed since my first Chair’s Column only a month or so ago.  I continue to look forward to sharing what I know with the Section as the year continues to unfold.