by Kevin Bouffard, The Ledger
Florida’s proposed $80 billion budget for 2016-17 includes $31.1 million for the state’s citrus industry, but as much as 40 percent of that could face Gov. Rick Scott’s veto pen.
In particular peril is $7 million of the proposed legislative budget for marketing programs at the cash-strapped Florida Department of Citrus. Last year, Scott vetoed $4.25 million the legislature approved for the Citrus Department in the current state budget.
Michael Sparks, chief executive at Lakeland-based Florida Citrus Mutual, the growers’ trade group and lobbying arm for the Florida citrus industry, said Wednesday that Scott has “listened but is not making any commitment” to approve Citrus Department money.
Even if Scott does not veto that money, it remains to be seen how much of it would go to marketing programs and not tax cuts beyond those advocated in a proposal by 12 of the state’s largest citrus growers calling for a radical downsizing of the Bartow-based department.
The plan, released by the growers’ group last month, called for trimming the department’s current budget by about 75 percent and the growers’ tax rates that support it by an equivalent amount. The Florida Citrus Commission, the department’s governing body, is scheduled to consider the proposal at its March 16 meeting.
“Anything the Legislature provided can be used to lower taxes,” said Bill Becker, a Vero Beach grower and juice processor who led the group of 12 growers calling for the Citrus Department downsizing. “Our message has been consistent: The money needs to be returned to growers to fund efforts against greening.”
Greening is a fatal bacterial disease in Florida since 2005 that has tripled the grower’s grove caretaking costs since then while subsequently reducing the annual citrus harvest by some 70 percent.
In its proposal, Becker and the other 11 growers argued the industry doesn’t need a marketing program in the present environment and that the money should stay in the growers’ pockets because they can’t operate profitably under current conditions. It allows for rebuilding the Citrus Department once scientists find an effective solution to greening.
The growers proposed slashing the 2016-17 Citrus Department budget to $7.25 million, not including undetermined federal money, down from $29.9 million in its current fiscal year, which ends on June 30. This year’s budget includes $4.4 million in federal money for international marketing programs.
The growers’ plan would eliminate most marketing programs but still leaves $2 million for public relations and $1.5 million for retail promotions.
The proposed 2016-17 legislative budget includes $5 million earmarked to promote orange juice, Florida’s biggest citrus commodity, primarily through public relations programs; $1 million to promote the nutritional benefits of all Florida citrus products; and $1 million for fresh citrus marketing, Sparks said.
The Citrus Department would be obligated to spend the money for those purposes, but it remains to be seen how much of it could replace the $3.5 million in the growers’ proposed budget that could then go toward larger tax cuts.
The Citrus Mutual board of directors last month supported the growers’ proposal unchanged, but Sparks said he believes the state money should supplement the downsized $7.25 million Citrus Department budget.
“I would expect these dollars to supplement existing marketing programs and not further lower taxes,” Sparks said.
Another at-risk item in the proposed legislative budget is $4.5 million for a new program at the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services that would offer property owners up to $125,000 to remove abandoned groves.
Florida has 130,108 acres of formerly commercial citrus groves no longer in production because of the high costs of caretaking. The remaining growers view them as places where the greening bacteria can grow and spread to neighboring groves.
Sparks called the program “a little iffy” because Scott has not clearly indicated his support.
Other appropriations in the legislative budget appear on firmer ground, Sparks said.
That includes $8 million to the Citrus Research and Development Foundation Inc. in Lake Alfred, the grower-supported agency overseeing scientific research against greening, he said. Scott did not veto $8 million to the foundation in the current state budget.
Another likely safe expenditure is $7.7 million toward the state’s share of the Citrus Health Response Program, Sparks said. The program, a joint effort by the federal and state agriculture departments, supports programs to mitigate greening and other diseases and has been funded in the state budget for more than a decade.
Legislative leaders are currently dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s on their budget proposal and will likely submit it to the governor by the end of the week, Sparks said. Scott has seven days to veto any expenditures.
The Legislature is schedule to adjourn on March 11.
Source: The Ledger