This afternoon at 5:15 pm, the first public hearing of the South Florida Water Management District on its 2012 Budget will begin. If you want to go, then plan to be there at SFWMD offices located at 3301 Gun Club Road (map) later today.

Stripped Budgets for Florida Water Management Districts

As previously discussed, money is tight and getting tighter for Florida's state government, and the state's water management has been the target of a lot of belt-tightening. (See earlier post, "Florida Water Management District Swiftly Cuts Budget With 120+ Employee Bailouts, Does This Really Hurt the Everglades?")

On August 24, 2011, the Secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued a news release (read it here) that Florida's five water management districts would have budget reductions of $700+ million year-over-year. Money is to be limited to only their "core mission responsibilities" of water supply, flood protection, water quality and natural system protection.

South Florida Water Management District Budget Cut By Approximately 50%

For the Miami area, the South Florida Water Management District will be operating on a 2012 budget that is almost half that of the prior year. And, it is true that some of those cuts were easy enough to do: getting rid of cushy perks -- like employees being paid for unused vacation days or board members getting plane rides on the district's plane to SFWMD board meetings -- really shouldn't get anyone's criticism, and new District head Melissa Meeker should be credited for her efforts in scaling back the payroll (including taking her own $40K cut in salary).

Please see full article below for more information.