The Senate on Thursday voted 37-0 to support using hundreds of millions of dollars from a gambling deal with the Seminole Tribe of Florida to help pay for expansion of a state wildlife corridor and other environmental projects.
The proposal (SB 1638), with matching legislation in the House (HB 1417), would provide at least $450 million a year for issues such as buying and maintaining land in the wildlife corridor, removing invasive species, planning about flooding and rising sea-levels and converting properties from using septic tanks to sewer systems.
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“This is such a big deal to Florida in what we’re doing to protect the environment,” Senate sponsor Travis Hutson, R-St. Augustine, told reporters. “It’s a good deal.”
The House version is ready to be considered by the full House. Gov. Ron DeSantis reached the gambling deal with the tribe in 2021. The deal, which was ratified by the Legislature, allows the tribe to offer online sports betting statewide and provide games such as craps at its casinos.
In exchange, the tribe pledged to pay $2.5 billion to the state over the first five years — and possibly billions of dollars more throughout the three-decade pact.
Two pari-mutuel companies, West Flagler Associates and Bonita-Fort Myers Corp., have fought the deal in state and federal courts. But Hutson and Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, said they don’t anticipate the compact to be struck down.
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“The way we looked at it is, I think it’s almost poetic, in that the Seminole Tribe, if you look at their website, it’s really quite lovely. They talk about land, preserving the land, which they have done for centuries,” Passidomo said. “And these funds from the gaming compact are going to go right back as part of their legacy.”
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