STUART, Fla. — Florida lawmakers have approved a $114.5 billion budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year that includes $645 million for Everglades restoration, continuing the state’s long-running investment in one of its largest environmental initiatives.
The funding was welcomed by environmental advocates, including Florida Oceanographic Society Executive Director Mark Perry, though he noted the spending plan still requires final action from Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Perry said the budget remains subject to the governor’s review and potential line-item vetoes before it can take effect.
“There’s always that caution that the appropriation bill goes forward. It’s subject to signing and vetoing different items and so forth,” Perry said. “But I’m pretty glad to see that at least they considered Everglades funding because we got to keep the momentum going on Everglades restoration work. I know that was the governor’s priority and kind of followed through with his proposal in the budget and hopefully it stuck through the budget request there.”
While the restoration funding remained intact, Perry expressed concern about the absence of new funding for Florida Forever, the state’s land conservation program.
He said land acquisition and conservation easements remain an important complement to restoration projects aimed at improving water quality and water storage throughout the Everglades watershed.
“Setting aside conservation lands or having those conservation easements over areas that are wildlife corridors and part of the Everglades restoration efforts are so important to have in conjunction with the actual projects to find storage and treatment in the watersheds to help Everglades restoration,” he said.
A significant portion of this year’s Everglades funding is expected to support the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir, commonly known as the EAA Reservoir. The project is designed to store and treat water south of Lake Okeechobee, reducing harmful discharges to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries while sending more water south into the Everglades.
Perry described the reservoir as a key component of the broader restoration strategy.
“A lot of the effort is going towards a large project known as the EAA Reservoir and the EAA is the Everglades agricultural area. It’s this area south of Lake Okeechobee and there was a large project to store water in the EAA and treat it through stormwater treatment areas as it goes out south to the Everglades from Lake Okeechobee. Again, taking Lake Okeechobee water instead of discharging it to coastal estuaries, we now will have the ability once that project gets done in order to put that in,” he said.
Perry also emphasized the importance of maintaining state funding levels to preserve the partnership between Florida and the federal government, which jointly finances many restoration projects.
“It’s a 50-50 partnership. If the state continues to put up our value for restoration efforts and programs and implementing these projects, that is really important so that the federal government has the ability to then to match that 50%. If the state kind of slumps off and doesn’t push forward to say, we’re stepping up to the table, then the federal government has the ability to say, well, I guess we’re not going to continue that with the state. They’re not putting up their share,” he said. “Think of the leverage of that. I mean, if we were left on our own as a state to restore the Everglades ecosystem, we’d have a lot more cost involved and it would take a lot, lot longer.”
Looking ahead, Perry said progress should be measured not only by new projects moving forward but also by continued investment in projects that have already been authorized.
“To me, success would look like getting these projects funded, getting them going and completed within the fast-track timeframes that we’ve allocated, including not forgetting the projects we’ve already authorized,” he said. “In 2007, for instance, we authorized projects in the Indian River Lagoon South portion up in the Treasure Coast area. Those are necessary to get those funded as well because it’s been a long time. We’ve authorized the projects. Now the time has pushed the money to get it keep going and let’s get these funded and done.”
The budget is now awaiting action from DeSantis, who has until July 1 to issue any vetoes and sign the spending plan into law.