Alan Osborne
Beach Lover
Gaetz is wrong to target the DCA and DEP | gaetz, column, target - GUEST COLUMN - Northwest Florida Daily News
State Sen. Don Gaetz of Niceville has publicly said he?d like to see the state Department of Community Affairs and the state Department of Environmental Protection shut down. Really? Let?s discuss these agencies and their functions from another perspective. Allow me to explain how they protect the common citizen.
The DCA has been around since 1969 and is over such boards as the Florida Building Commission, the Florida Communities Trust Governing Board and the Commission for a Sustainable Florida. They manage the Florida Building Code, post-disaster redevelopment planning and areas of critical state concern. These areas include Apalachicola, the Florida Keys and Big Cypress Swamp.
The DCA?s community development block grant program has brought in more than $540 million in federal funds for neighborhood stabilization, and during the 2005 hurricane season it obtained $82 million in federal funding for disaster relief. In the past five years, the CDBG program has created 3,500 permanent Florida jobs.
The agency is the sole enforcement authority over Developments of Regional Impact, or DRIs, such as airports, hospitals, industrial facilities, attractions like Walt Disney World, hotel and motel complexes, residential developments and multi-use developments. These are defined by Florida Statute 380.06 as ?any development which, because of its character, magnitude or location, would have a substantial effect upon the health, safety or welfare of citizens of more than one county.?
Since 1973, the agency has approved 1,173 DRIs throughout Florida!
The DEP protects, conserves and manages Florida?s natural resources and enforces the state?s environmental laws. It oversees and manages Florida?s award-winning state parks and trails system. Since 1990, through land-acquisition programs called Preservation 2000 and Florida Forever, more than 2 million acres have been preserved, protecting habitats for 190 native and endangered animals and plants.
The DEP?s regulatory priorities include administering Florida?s air-pollution control programs to best protect human health; protecting and restoring water quality; managing hazardous waste and cleanups; overseeing beach restoration; and reviewing applications for power plants, transmission lines and natural gas pipelines. Together with the South Florida Water Management District, the DEP is implementing a 30-year, $10.9 billion Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan covering 18,000 square miles.
With all these facts, I ask: Is this kind of government ?destructive,? as Sen. Gaetz implies?
I say not! I also say that with the DCA having approved more than 1,000 major developments each affecting more than one county, any type of major growth these agencies stopped was growth Florida doesn?t need or want!
Before these agencies existed, we had such things as ?swampland developments,? and the big business of sugar cane and agriculture abuse was on track to ruin Florida?s image and lead to the demise of the Everglades.
These agencies are nonpartisan and should not be the target of any party, Republican or Democratic. These agencies provide the peace of mind that citizens who borrow money to move to Florida and invest in the ?Florida Dream? need, deserve and pay taxes for.
When county officials look the other way, the DCA and the DEP are the only agencies that stand between a citizen and big development. Without these agencies, profits may soar with no oversight in place. But it will backfire. Future generations will bear the burden of our hasty decision to put no checks and balances on infrastructure.
I beg Sen. Gaetz to figure out how much it would take from every state agency equally to cut Florida?s budget by $3.6 billion. He should lead the charge to implement such cuts across the board, statewide. Match the federal initiative and freeze the pay of all state workers and elected officials, including their staffers, for two years until we catch up.
Simply approach it from a business standpoint. Leave politics out of the decision to balance the state budget.
If there were no cops, speeders would rule and crime would indeed pay. Eliminate the DCA and the DEP, Sen. Gaetz, and my children, my grandchildren and the environment will pay the price. These public agencies are important to all of us!
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State Sen. Don Gaetz of Niceville has publicly said he?d like to see the state Department of Community Affairs and the state Department of Environmental Protection shut down. Really? Let?s discuss these agencies and their functions from another perspective. Allow me to explain how they protect the common citizen.
The DCA has been around since 1969 and is over such boards as the Florida Building Commission, the Florida Communities Trust Governing Board and the Commission for a Sustainable Florida. They manage the Florida Building Code, post-disaster redevelopment planning and areas of critical state concern. These areas include Apalachicola, the Florida Keys and Big Cypress Swamp.
The DCA?s community development block grant program has brought in more than $540 million in federal funds for neighborhood stabilization, and during the 2005 hurricane season it obtained $82 million in federal funding for disaster relief. In the past five years, the CDBG program has created 3,500 permanent Florida jobs.
The agency is the sole enforcement authority over Developments of Regional Impact, or DRIs, such as airports, hospitals, industrial facilities, attractions like Walt Disney World, hotel and motel complexes, residential developments and multi-use developments. These are defined by Florida Statute 380.06 as ?any development which, because of its character, magnitude or location, would have a substantial effect upon the health, safety or welfare of citizens of more than one county.?
Since 1973, the agency has approved 1,173 DRIs throughout Florida!
The DEP protects, conserves and manages Florida?s natural resources and enforces the state?s environmental laws. It oversees and manages Florida?s award-winning state parks and trails system. Since 1990, through land-acquisition programs called Preservation 2000 and Florida Forever, more than 2 million acres have been preserved, protecting habitats for 190 native and endangered animals and plants.
The DEP?s regulatory priorities include administering Florida?s air-pollution control programs to best protect human health; protecting and restoring water quality; managing hazardous waste and cleanups; overseeing beach restoration; and reviewing applications for power plants, transmission lines and natural gas pipelines. Together with the South Florida Water Management District, the DEP is implementing a 30-year, $10.9 billion Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan covering 18,000 square miles.
With all these facts, I ask: Is this kind of government ?destructive,? as Sen. Gaetz implies?
I say not! I also say that with the DCA having approved more than 1,000 major developments each affecting more than one county, any type of major growth these agencies stopped was growth Florida doesn?t need or want!
Before these agencies existed, we had such things as ?swampland developments,? and the big business of sugar cane and agriculture abuse was on track to ruin Florida?s image and lead to the demise of the Everglades.
These agencies are nonpartisan and should not be the target of any party, Republican or Democratic. These agencies provide the peace of mind that citizens who borrow money to move to Florida and invest in the ?Florida Dream? need, deserve and pay taxes for.
When county officials look the other way, the DCA and the DEP are the only agencies that stand between a citizen and big development. Without these agencies, profits may soar with no oversight in place. But it will backfire. Future generations will bear the burden of our hasty decision to put no checks and balances on infrastructure.
I beg Sen. Gaetz to figure out how much it would take from every state agency equally to cut Florida?s budget by $3.6 billion. He should lead the charge to implement such cuts across the board, statewide. Match the federal initiative and freeze the pay of all state workers and elected officials, including their staffers, for two years until we catch up.
Simply approach it from a business standpoint. Leave politics out of the decision to balance the state budget.
If there were no cops, speeders would rule and crime would indeed pay. Eliminate the DCA and the DEP, Sen. Gaetz, and my children, my grandchildren and the environment will pay the price. These public agencies are important to all of us!
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