“Editorials from around New York - Morning Call” plus 2 more

Editorials from around New York - Morning Call
Local workers, rescuers waiting as hurricane brushes coast - Daily Journal
Rising seas may swamp Everglades restoration plan - UPI News

Editorials from around New York - Morning Call

Posted: 25 Sep 2019 12:27 PM PDT

Recent editorials of statewide and national interest from New York's newspapers:

The State Needs To Support Public Defense

The Post-Journal

Sept. 21

It is important that those accused of crimes receive their due process guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

Mandating that prosecutors hand over evidence to defense attorneys within 15 days of an arraignment while including more material in the discovery material prosecutors are required to hand over has a laudable intent. The more information a defendant has available, the better case the defendant can make in court.

It is equally important, however, that public safety be protected, and the state's actions on this front are far from laudable.

We note, for instance, the requirement that prosecutors turn over names and contact information of any person with information about a case and all electronic recordings related to an incident.

District attorneys argue that without additional staffers and upgraded technology, the reforms could inadvertently cost prosecutors cases, and, if material is not properly reviewed and redacted, witnesses and other parties could be put in danger, they said. In addition to the pressures in district attorneys offices, police departments have to make a complete copy of its file available for the prosecution to give to the defense, including notification of 911 call recordings, video or audio recordings from body cameras.

It's hard to imagine how area police departments are going to comply with the state's regulations without adding staff to handle the increased records duties. It's also hard to imagine how district attorneys offices statewide will comply without more staff. Yet, while the state makes funding available to hire more public defenders, no additional money was programmed for prosecutors to meet the state's sweeping criminal justice reforms.

That means the state is hurting the public in one of two ways. The first is the hit to the public's checkbook. In Chautauqua County, for example, Swanson estimates it will take an additional $1.5 million to meet the state's discovery rules. That would, of course, make it nearly impossible for the county to stay within the state's 2% tax cap — meaning county taxes would increase thanks to a change in state law. The other way the state is hurting the public is the threat to public safety. Swanson knew long before County Executive George Borrello unveils his 2020 budget proposal this week that the District Attorney's Office isn't getting additional county funding to hire the staff necessary to meet the state's discovery rules. The chances are good that something will be missed, meaning cases could be thrown out of court because discovery rules were violated and people who likely committed a crime will walk away with no penalty.

The scales of justice are supposed to be equal. The state's handling of public defense and district attorneys is far from equal. The state should find money in its budget to help local district attorneys' offices meet the discovery rule changes or delay the rules until a proper funding mechanism can be found.

Online: https://bit.ly/2mD91US

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Congress Steps Up, Trump Blinks

The New York Times

Sept. 24

It turns out President Trump can push his fellow Republicans too far. Senate Republicans stuck up for themselves, and their institution, on Tuesday by joining unanimously with their Democratic colleagues to call on the president to stop stonewalling. They asked him to release to the relevant congressional committees the complaint from a whistle-blower that an inspector general had said raised an "urgent concern" about the president's behavior.

On the need for greater transparency from this White House, lawmakers from both parties are in unusual agreement, at least for now. And the White House showed signs of backing down, signaling not that it would release the full complaint but that it might not block the whistle-blower from testifying.

The rare display of institutional solidarity in defense of American democracy may prove ephemeral. On the other hand, it can be hard to recognize turning points in the moment, and this week Mr. Trump's outrages seemed to be stirring lawmakers from their state of political rigidity and passivity.

On Tuesday, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi , announced she would open an impeachment inquiry. But when reports surfaced this spring that Rudy Giuliani, Mr. Trump's personal lawyer, had been pushing Ukrainian officials to pursue a corruption investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden , the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, there was no mass outrage, no collective gasp of horror.

But over the past couple of months, and more intensely the past couple of weeks, has come an accelerating accretion of more, and more alarming, information: a whistle-blower complaint had been filed with the inspector general of the intelligence community accusing Mr. Trump of, among other acts, pressing the new Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, about Mr. Biden; the Department of Justice was blocking the inspector general from passing along the complaint, contra federal law; just days before speaking with Mr. Zelensky, Mr. Trump had directed the White House staff to withhold close to $400 million in military aid from Ukraine.

This episode of extreme politicking by Mr. Trump seems to go straight to questions of national security, and Democratic lawmakers who had been hesitant to call for impeachment began suggesting that it might be inevitable. On Sunday, Ms. Pelosi, a devout impeachment skeptic, gave the administration until Thursday to hand over the whistle-blower complaint or face "a whole new stage of investigation." Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, felt moved to tweet that it was "critical" for the facts to come out.

Come Monday, and rolling into Tuesday, Washington was buzzing with a nervous energy. Everyone was on high alert, frantically scanning for signs of where things were headed next. Ms. Pelosi was canvassing her members about impeachment. With every House Democrat who stepped forward to speak about Ukraine — Debbie Dingell, Rosa DeLauro, John Lewis — the scramble to analyze the odds of impeachment began anew. In a Monday op-ed in The Washington Post, seven freshman House Democrats , including some from districts Mr. Trump won in 2016, came out in favor of a formal impeachment investigation. Twitter was awash in clichéd metaphors describing the shifting politics — the dam was breaking, the tide was turning, the winds were shifting. (In the real world, it always bears remembering, most people were less transfixed by the news from Washington.)

Republicans remained notably tepid about rushing to the president's defense. The Senate Intelligence Committee, led by Richard Burr of North Carolina, opened an investigation into the matter and made clear it wanted to hear from the whistle-blower as soon as possible. Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, publicly asserted that he had pushed for the funding for Ukraine and received no explanation for why it had been held up by the administration.

At some point Tuesday, the rumbling began that Ms. Pelosi would hold an afternoon news conference to announce the opening of a formal impeachment inquiry. Shortly after 2 o'clock, Mr. Trump tweeted that he had authorized the release of the "complete, fully declassified and unredacted transcript" of his call with Mr. Zelensky.

If the president was hoping this would ease the rising pressure, he was mistaken.

Democrats are not content to receive a transcript provided by the administration. Nor should they be. The allegations at hand are complicated and serious and call for the whistle-blower complaint in its entirety to be handed over to Congress. (The complaint is said to be about multiple concerning acts.) Ms. Pelosi conveyed this to the president Tuesday morning.

At 5 o'clock, Ms. Pelosi went before the nation and, in a five-minute statement, laid out the basic concerns about the president's behavior, including his attempt to prevent Congress from learning about that behavior. "The president must be held accountable," said Ms. Pelosi. "No one is above the law."

There will be no more push and pull among Democrats about whether to hold an official impeachment inquiry. With apologies to Twitter, the trigger has been pulled, the Rubicon crossed, the die cast.

After months — years even — of watching Mr. Trump behave as though he answered to no one, many lawmakers seemed almost relieved that the showdown had arrived. Now that it has, lawmakers of both parties must proceed with care. Rarely have the stakes been so high.

Online: https://nyti.ms/2nhvjvL

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California's Homeless Paradise

Wall Street Journal

Sept. 23

President Trump performed a public service last week by highlighting the causes of exploding homelessness in California. Democrats aren't taking it well, but this is a debate the U.S. and especially the Golden State need.

On a visit to San Francisco last week Mr. Trump warned that the Environmental Protection Agency might cite the city for pollution in the streets. The city council has banned plastic straws, but the good liberals don't seem bothered by streets strewn with human feces and needles that fall into storm sewers.

California's poverty rate is near a record low, yet its unsheltered population has jumped more than 20% in three years compared to 5% in the other 49 states, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. With only 12% of the country's population, California accounts for half of those living on the streets.

Democrats can't blame this on climate. San Francisco is only a few degrees cooler than Orlando in January, but its homeless rate is 30 times higher. While San Francisco and Skid Row in Los Angeles have long attracted vagrants, homelessness has spread to the suburbs. Rodents, infectious disease, drugs, theft and assault have followed.

Last year the Orange County government cleared 13,950 needles, 404 tons of debris and 5,279 pounds of hazardous waste from a homeless camp in the Santa Ana riverbed. Since 2009 cases of flea-born typhus have increased 10-fold to 174. A homeless person in Bel Air started a fire in 2017 that razed 400 acres and shut down West LA for several days.

A video recently went viral of a woman being assaulted outside her San Francisco condo by an apparently mentally ill homeless man. After being booked for battery, the assailant was released. A union representing groundskeepers last week demanded pepper spray so workers can defend themselves from homeless people after a rash of assaults.

Democrats blame rising rents for driving people onto the streets. But as a new White House Council of Economic Advisers white paper on homelessness notes, housing costs are swelled by restrictive building codes, zoning, environmental mandates, rent control, cumbersome permitting and labor regulations_in other words, liberal policies.

The economists project that homelessness would fall by 54% in San Francisco and 40% in Los Angeles if housing costs approximated production costs more closely as they do in Texas, Florida and Arizona. Yet California's homeless population is still 2.2 times larger than projected after controlling for poverty, home prices and weather. What gives?

Mental illness, substance abuse and a history of incarceration also contribute, the report notes. HUD says about 28% of California's unsheltered homeless have a severe mental illness and 20% are chronic substance abusers compared to 18% and 15% in Florida. These figures are based on interviews with the homeless so they're probably understated.

Notably, California's homeless rate began climbing in 2015 after voters approved a referendum effectively decriminalizing drug possession and theft. Many low-level criminals and addicts have been released onto the streets. Voters approved a 1% income surtax on millionaires in 2004 for mental health, but Sacramento squandered the money as usual.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last year also made it harder to remove people sleeping on the streets by barring Boise, Idaho, from enjoining a ban on public camping. So police in California now have a limited arsenal to impose public order.

HUD Secretary Ben Carson recently met with state and local officials to discuss how the feds can help get people off the streets and stand on their own. But Democrats have responded by attacking the President while begging his Administration for money.

"Donald Trump is a slumlord who has spent his presidency pushing people into homelessness by taking away health care, food assistance and affordable housing funds," declared San Francisco state senator Scott Wiener. Yet California's rising homelessness preceded Mr. Trump, and federal spending on Medicaid and housing have kept rising.

Liberals are mortified that Mr. Trump is shining a national light on the squalor spreading across the Golden State. They want to spread their policies nationwide, but how about keeping your own streets clean and safe first?

Online: https://on.wsj.com/2mpFD4l

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Grant for dairy farmers a good moo-ve

Utica Observer-Dispatch

Sept. 25

An $18.6 million state Farmland Protection Implementation Grant for conservation easement projects on 25 New York dairy farms isn't only an investment in one of the state's leading industries, it's an investment in our own future, too.

Without dairy, we're doomed.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the grant Sept. 16. The conservation easement ensures that no matter who owns the land it must remain farmland and no developments or structures such as retail stores may be built there. Landowners may continue to own and use the property and will pay property taxes.

One recipient of grant money is the Paddock family, who operate Groeslon Farm in Remsen. Dairy farmer Bill Paddock said the grant provides his family's farm "an opportunity for the next generation." They'll get $417,690 for a conservation easement with the Tug Hill Tomorrow Land Trust. The Paddocks applied for the grant in February and were notified last month that they had been chosen.

Jonathan J. Schell, the associate director of the land trust, said that the grant will pay for having the development rights transferred, including appraising the farm. This requires having some sort of transition take place, he said, typically transitioning to the next generation. Paddock's oldest daughter, Rayne Ives, and her husband intend to continue running the farm, says Paddock.

That's a huge plus because start-up dairy farms these days are virtually non-existent.

"I can't imagine a young person starting up (in the dairy farming industry)," Kevin Angell, whose family has operated a dairy farm in Durhamville for six generations, told the O-D editorial board last year. "If (milk's) not at a viable price, then how are you going to get young people interested in this? And if you don't have young people interested in this, then what's going to happen to these small farms?"

Add to that the fact that many farmers are aging out - more than half are over the age of 55 - and you have a recipe for disaster if we don't find ways to keep existing farms going.

The conservation easement grant will allow the farm to remain in the family, as so many smaller dairy operations do. Bill Paddock's father, Raymond, said that it was his father who founded the farm more than a half century ago. He can recall when there were around 50 dairy farms in the town of Remsen. Now there are five.

Such a depletion in numbers is scary, but is indicative of the struggles facing dairy farmers today. The latest census data for New York agriculture shows a six percent drop in the number of farms statewide. The U.S. Department of Agriculture 2017 census - released every five years - showed 33,438 farms in New York state, about 2,100 fewer farms than 2012.

"This is the largest drop in more than two decades and is triple the national average of a three-percent loss," said New York Farm Bureau President David Fisher.

Dairy farming is the backbone of the state's agricultural industry, accounting for almost half of the state's total agricultural production. But low milk prices in recent years have been and remain a challenge for dairy farmers, especially for smaller family operations. Imagine a business where your operating costs increase but you get less back for the product you produce. That's the plight facing dairy farmers.

This has forced many out of business. When that happens, we all feel the effects. Beyond the health and nutritional value of dairy products, the loss of dairy farms ripples through the whole economy. For instance, the demise of farms claims collateral damage across the industry, affecting everything from veterinary services and feed providers to equipment suppliers and other vendors.

Other farm families, like the Paddocks, sustain themselves by having second jobs. Bill, for instance, inspects milk for the farmer's co-op; his wife and daughter are teachers. Paddock says they've also kept their debt down.

When dairy land is sold off for development, there's no turning back. That's what makes the conservation easements so critical. Farmland must stay agricultural.

Online: https://bit.ly/2mEiIT1

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All must sign on for climate change fight

The Post Star

Sept. 22

The push to land on the moon is often used as an example of what needs to happen now to combat climate change, but a better comparison is with the top-to-bottom effort to win World War II.

The war was a global fight, as this one is. The war required huge investments by the government and great personal sacrifice from soldiers, but it also demanded active participation and sacrifice from families at home.

On the homefront, families conserved fuel, followed food rationing, tended victory gardens, bought war bonds and donated their pots and pans and even the bumpers off their cars for scrap metal drives. Posters urged Americans to contribute, and movie directors were recruited to make patriotic films to boost the war effort.

Almost everyone in the country believed in the Allied cause, and more importantly, was willing to make sacrifices for it. That is the sort of effort we need now and that we are starting to see, for example, in Queensbury, where the Town Board has been going out of its way to pursue green policies as part of its everyday decision-making.

A recent presentation by Lake George Waterkeeper Chris Navitsky convinced the board it should adopt low-impact development rules for waterfront residential zones. Queensbury has a lot of waterfront land on Lake George and a couple of other smaller lakes, and its rules on seemingly small matters, like the use of fertilizer on lawns, can have a big impact on the lake's water quality.

Board members are now looking at going further than fertilizer restrictions. The guidelines Navitsky proposed would involve shoreline restoration with native vegetation, prohibition of certain polluting materials in, for instance, driveway construction, and more.

The board has also recently endorsed going out to bid for three electric cars for use by town employees, and is looking at the installation of more electric-vehicle charging stations in places such as town parks. These stations would be convenient for people who are looking for something to do while they're charging their cars.

We get a positive charge out of seeing town officials take the initiative on climate change, and we'd love to see more of that from more communities in the area. Queensbury is a big town with a healthy tax base and can afford to hire staff and make investments that would be a stretch for some of our smaller towns.

But Queensbury officials are not the only ones who realize that investments now in green energy and environmental regulations will pay off in the long run. Municipalities throughout the region have been investing in solar panels and taking other steps to reduce municipal energy use.

There is more to consider than bottom-line cost. Cars that run on gasoline, for example, may still be more economical per mile than electric cars, if the only costs you consider are the costs of buying and running the car.

But the volatility that goes with a warming climate — the flooding caused by more severe storms, for example — is also a cost borne by everyone, including Queensbury's taxpayers. Buying a few electric cars will have only a tiny effect. But billions of tiny acts, creating billions of tiny effects, will keep Earth habitable for humans.

Faced with the enormity of climate change, it's easy to throw up your hands. All enormous undertakings look impossible early on, whether it's landing on the moon or winning World War II. Queensbury Town Board is not giving up on the climate. None of us should.

Online: https://bit.ly/2mKnQES

Local workers, rescuers waiting as hurricane brushes coast - Daily Journal

Posted: 04 Sep 2019 12:00 AM PDT

Dozens of Indiana firefighters, including four from Johnson County, and about five local utility workers are waiting to see where they will be needed and what work is ahead as the first major hurricane of the season neared Florida's coast and moved north.

Franklin Fire Department Chief Dan McElyea, Bargersville firefighter Sean Campbell, Greenwood firefighter Justin Laraway and White River Township firefighter Mike Combs have traveled south and are waiting to help communities in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian. Johnson County firefighter Mike Pruitt is spokesman for the task force of Indiana first responders who are called to help when disaster strikes, but is not traveling with the group on this trip.

Eighty members of Task Force One and six contractors — drivers and mechanics — were staged in the Orlando area until they receive orders from the federal government to report to another area, Pruitt said. Much depends on where the hurricane causes damage, and the storm's path had been shifting since the team was deployed.

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"If the locals put out a request for more service, whether that be in Florida or Georgia or the Carolinas, those states reach out to the federal level, and (the federal government) decides where we go," Pruitt said.

In the meantime, the rescuers are training, or reviewing what they have already learned, such as water rescues and data collection, Pruitt said.

A lot of their focus has been on a new GIS system they will use for the first time in the field, Campbell said.

Survey123 allows rescuers to upload information and photos in real-time so supervisors and government officials can know what they're doing, when and where, and determine what and how much aid is needed, he said.

This is Campbell's second deployment with the task force, and it is much different than his last, he said on the phone from Florida on Tuesday.

He was part of the group that was deployed last year to Wilmington, N.C. to help in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence.

"We had a good idea of where that storm was going, and they deployed us right into the eye. With this one, nobody really knows where it's going to come in or where it's going to hit, so we've had to be prepared for everything. At times, forecasters are saying it might be a Category 5. Now it's kind of losing its steam," Campbell said.

As the hurricane moves, they may be re-positioned, he said.

"We're diligent and prepared for whatever this storm may bring," Campbell said.

One possibility is that Task Force One is sent back to Indiana without being asked to render any aid, Pruitt said.

"I look back on the storms we've responded on, and it's not a huge percentage, but it's some," he said. "We were staged and the storm either weakened or changed course or the locals did not need those resources. (But) we're there and we're ready to respond if we're needed."

About five local utility workers with Duke Energy also headed south late last week to help restore power in the aftermath of the monster storm, which as of Monday morning had neared Category 5 strength before weakening.

As it inched closer to the United States, it seemed to be tracking north, meaning the hurricane itself may not make landfall in Florida as originally expected.

"Just because it doesn't make landfall doesn't mean there won't be winds and torrential rains that could wreak quite a bit of havoc on the areas we serve," said Chip Orben, Duke's government and community relations manager. "I don't envision they will be sent back anytime soon."

About 700 employees from three states, including Indiana, were deployed to Macon, Ga. on Friday. They have since been split up among areas in Florida with a high number of Duke customers, Orben said. Some are stationed in Gainesville, Fla., while others were sent to The Villages, northwest of Orlando, he said.

As the storm's path shifted, residents in other states started considering evacuation plans, and workers were considering where they might be needed.

More than 800,000 in South Carolina alone, and a half-million in Georgia, were warned to evacuate for fear Dorian could bring life-threatening storm-surge flooding even if the hurricane's center stayed offshore, as forecast. Several large airports announced closings, and hundreds of flights were canceled.

Rising seas may swamp Everglades restoration plan - UPI News

Posted: 24 Jun 2019 12:00 AM PDT

ORLANDO, Fla., June 24 (UPI) -- Large areas of Florida's Everglades could be underwater by the time a multibillion-dollar plan to restore the region is finished, according to a University of Maryland researcher. But that might only make the plan more urgent, researchers and advocates said.

At stake is not only a national park and a home to unique wildlife, but also a flow of fresh water through South Florida that helps to replenish drinking water aquifers for the Miami area -- home to millions of people. If rising seas doom a plan to restore the area, all of that could be threatened.

While some argue the plan is becoming obsolete because of rising seas, others say the plan is needed more than ever. It addresses the health of coastal wetlands, a barrier against storm damage, and toxic algae events that menace central Florida. President Donald Trump recently agreed to support an increase in Everglades funding to $200 million for this year.

Congress authorized the long-range Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan in 2000. But the plan was written before the public considered climate change and rising seas an imminent threat. Former Vice President Al Gore's movie that publicized global warming as an issue dates to 2006.

"Overlaying sea-level rise projections with the plan is something that will need to happen, but we have proof that the projects we're doing are helping already," said Celeste DePalma, director of Everglades policy for Audubon Florida.

"We rely on the Biscayne Aquifer for water, and that water flow replenishes the aquifer. Everglades restoration will buy time and allow wildlife and people to adapt," DePalma said. "If we don't do this, we need another plan for water supply and natural areas, and we don't have that."

A shorter peninsula

Seas could be 20 inches higher than the level anticipated in the plan by 2050, which could mean large areas of the Everglades would be underwater, said William Nuttle, a scientist with the University of Maryland's Center for Environmental Science. That should be grounds for a major rewrite of the plan, he argues. But not everyone agrees.

"Some scientists believe that Florida will be about 50 miles shorter by 2050, so the peninsula will actually end at Tamiami Trail by the time this restoration is finished," Nuttle said.

He authored a paper published recently titled "'Climate Change Alters What's Possible in Restoring Florida's Everglades."

"I'm not saying we shouldn't do restoration, but we should have accurate numbers for planning purposes," Nuttle said.

Others don't believe restoration plan should be updated, said René M. Price, chairwoman of the Department of Earth and Environment at Florida International University in Miami.

"The last thing I'd want would be for them to stop and try to update" the restoration plan, Price said. "That document is 20 years old. I think they need to focus on really letting the water go, to flow through the Everglades."

She said progress is being made that will help thwart the impact of rising seas.

Shannon Estonez, chief operating officer of the non-profit Everglades Foundation, agreed that restoration plans should use the best and current numbers for sea level rise. But she said all the research done on the Everglades indicates that more flow of fresh water to the south will help combat the effects of higher seas.

"It's about creating a sustainable ecosystem, to reverse the degradation of the Everglades," she said. "If you don't restore the ecosystem, the impact of sea-level rise is going to be worse."

She said Shark River Slough, a low-lying area southwest of Miami, could be underwater if seas rise and nothing is done. But with a flow of fresh water, the native Everglades plants will survive and help to hold back the ocean.

"The whole point is that when you restore fresh water flow to the south, you help offset some of the effects of salt water," Estonez said.

Saltwater intrusion

The goal of the comprehensive plan is to bring the area closer to its natural state -- before developers cut roads, canals and farm fields across it. Elements of the plan also address cleaning up polluted runoff from Lake Okeechobee, and sending less lake water into mid-Florida estuaries during the rainy season -- a major cause of fish kills and red tide algae blooms.

Nuttle said the plan as written only anticipated 6 inches of sea level rise by 2050. Now, even the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers anticipates that seas could be 26 inches higher in the region by that time.

And that doesn't take into account the world's ice sheets melting faster if global temperatures rise. In 2017, the National Climate Assessment of the United States said it is very likely sea level will rise between one and 4.3 feet by 2100.

Nuttle said that without revised numbers for sea level, the result could be spending billions on restoring areas of Florida that would be open water in a matter of decades.

He noted that research has detected growing frequency of saltwater intrusion in fields of native sawgrass in regions of the Everglades. Dying sawgrass plants mean the peat or soil underneath collapses.

Such trends eventually could accelerate the impact of sea-level rise. Nuttle said everyone working on the restoration plan knows the projections are outdated.

Nuttle's article follows a new Everglades Report Card, released in April by an interagency group that includes the Corps of Engineers and the National Park Service. They found that the Everglades is struggling to support the plants and animals that live there and the natural services they provide to humans.

But DePalma pointed out that the number of Everglades wading bird nest counts soared in 2018, mostly due to weather. And some areas that have benefited from restored water flow are showing healthier wildlife.

"So we know that what we're doing is working, and that we actually need more of it," DePalma said.

When Congress adopted the restoration plan in 2000, it would have taken an estimated 30 years to complete and cost $8.2 billion. That has increased to an estimated 50 years to implement and $10 billion in costs, not accounting for inflation. The plan has been plagued with underfunding and political red tape since it was authorized.

Trump's budget request originally was $63 million for South Florida Everglades restoration and $5.5 million for operations and maintenance. After Republicans including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed back, Trump boosted proposed outlays.

"We have consistently urged that the federal government meet its commitment to Everglades restoration at a level of at least $200 million for this fiscal year -- an amount needed annually to restore America's Everglades for future generations, reduce polluted water discharges from Lake Okeechobee and help ensure clean drinking water for over 8 million Floridians," Everglades Foundation CEO Eric Eikenberg said in a March statement.

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