Sprawl, powered by 'dirty money'

Why does our legislature cater to development interests? Look who’s signing the campaign checks.

State campaign finance data for the fourth quarter of 2025 has dropped, and initially we were going to write about how much Big Sugar gave last year.

And in fact, we WILL write about it, right here: According to the data, Florida’s sugar industry donated more than $3.3 million at the state level alone in 2025; U.S. Sugar and its subsidiaries gave more than $2 million, while Florida Crystals and its subsidiaries gave about $1.3 million.

But as we and others have noted, the 2026 Legislative session is shaping up to be the “Session of Sprawl on Steroids.” And as such, we wondered how much “dirty money” developers and builders doled out last year.

Answer: According to our research, builders and building industry association PACs (political action committees) around the state gave at least $1.37 million last year to candidates and PACs. Donors identified as “real estate developers” or “real estate development” gave another $3.44 million.

In other words, MORE than Big Sugar. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. For a look at who gave, who got and why it matters, check out our latest on our website.

ICYMI: Florida Legislature wants you to sit down, shut up on growth issues

As we noted in a post that blew up last week, the Florida Legislature holds you in contempt. Several bills have been proposed this session that would eliminate your chance to comment on development proposals in your neighborhood. Other bills seek to preempt local authority, making the state the sole arbiter on important conservation issues. And that also silences local voices, ensuring that what the community wants loses out to what Tallahassee mandates.

Offensive? Outrageous? You bet. But it won't stop unless and until enough of us send a message — at the ballot box.

Follow the 2026 Florida Legislative Session

As the Florida Legislature grinds its way through the 2026 session ending in March, you can follow along via the Legislative Accountability hub created by our friends at Friends of the Everglades. A detailed list of bills relating to conservation issues is updated continuously, you can sign up for alerts and more. Check it out!

VoteWater files amici brief in “Alligator Alcatraz” case

VoteWater has joined several other conservation organizations in filing an “amici curiae” (friend of the court) brief in support of Friends of the Everglades and other groups that sued to stop the Everglades detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz” on environmental grounds.

Joining VoteWater in filing the brief are the Florida Keys Chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America, People’s Economic and Environmental Resiliency Group (P.E.E.R. Group), Sierra Club and Tropical Audubon Society. The groups, represented by attorneys with the Jacobs Public Interest Law Clinic for Democracy and the Environment Stetson University College of Law, argue in the brief that the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) reviews that precede major federal projects are crucial for assessing potential ecological damage to the Greater Everglades ecosystem.

A NEPA review should have been done prior to the opening of “Alligator Alcatraz” — but wasn’t.

VoteWater has participated in NEPA processes for projects impacting south Florida, including meetings prior to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ adoption of the new Lake Okeechobee System Operating Manual, or LOSOM.

“The NEPA process is a crucial step in mitigating a project’s environmental impact,” said VoteWater Executive Director Gil Smart. “But officials simply skipped that step in order to build Alligator Alcatraz.” 

Oral arguments in the case are scheduled for the week of April 6. Find out more about the case by clicking here.

VoteWater at EVCO, Everglades Action Day

The annual Everglades Coalition Conference is coming up next week in Naples, and VoteWater will join up to 60 other organizations from throughout South Florida along with government officials to discuss Everglades restoration, celebrate progress and ponder next steps. And in February, VoteWater’s Gil Smart will be in Tallahassee as part of “Everglades Action Day,” also sponsored by the Everglades Coalition. Smart and others will be meeting with south Florida legislators to talk about restoration and related conservation issues, and asking for their support.

Killing corals for the economy

The first paragraph of this South Florida Sun-Sentinel story has “bad idea” written all over it.

“Scientists warn that a proposed expansion of Port Everglades could cause unprecedented damage to corals in the U.S., including some of the only remaining endangered staghorn corals that survived a record-breaking heat wave.”

Turns out scientists found 10 million corals thriving in and around the main channel used daily by cargo and cruise ships. Many reefs across Florida have collapsed from disease, coastal development and rising ocean temperatures. But here we have one that’s thriving.

And the plan is to kill it. 

The Port Everglades Navigation Improvements Project is a major federal initiative, led by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, aimed at deepening and widening the port’s shipping channels to accommodate newer cargo ships and bulk carriers that transport raw materials, including oil, gas, coal and grain.”

Port Everglades supplies nearly all of South Florida’s petroleum, and demand isn’t exactly shrinking.

But for years conservation groups including Miami Waterkeeper and the Center for Biological Diversity have been fighting this bad idea, noting that it could inflict massive damage on the reef. Indeed, the Corps itself acknowledges that sediment from the dredging could impact the coral, including endangered staghorn corals.

The Corps is in the process of conducting additional environmental studies before moving ahead. But the thing is, we’ve seen this movie before; the PortMiami dredge project, completed in 2015, buried nearly 300 acres of coral reef in sediment, killing it. If permitted, the Port Everglades proposal could duplicate the devastation.

Economic progress is important, but we can’t destroy our coastal environment to achieve it. And if you agree, head on over to this page and add your voice to the thousands of other folks who have already spoken out against this project.

Who knows? Maybe common sense will prevail.

There’s a first time for everything, right?

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