September 1996

Sugar Tax Plan Argued Before Supreme Court

Lawyers for environmentalists and the sugar industry made their arguments before the Florida Supreme Court recently in a battle to put a penny-a-pound sugar tax referendum on the November ballot. For the second time in two years, the two sides met over a tax proposal that would raise $750 million over its 25-year life for cleanup of Florida's Everglades.

Environmentalists claim the sugar industry pollutes the Everglades by allowing fertilizer- tainted water to leech from cane fields into surrounding wetlands. Industry officials say the tax would be a death knell for the industry, threatening 16,000 jobs related to sugar production in southern Florida. Attorneys for Save Our Everglades, a Miami-based group backing three constitutional amendments, has garnered nearly 1.5 million signatures to put the proposals on the ballot. Opponents, including the Sugar Growers Cooperative of Florida and US Sugar Corp., said the proposals merely mimic a 1994 amendment that the Court said was unconstitutional, and therefore should be struck down again. But Save Our Everglades said it had made changes to the 1994 proposal and the amendments will now stand up to Supreme Court muster.

The new package was divided into three separate amendments so as to meet the Constitution's "single subject" rule. One would establish a 1 cent-a-pound tax on raw sugar grown in South Florida, another would establish a trust fund and a third would make polluters pay for damages. The decision must be handed down within the next two months since the ballot question is scheduled for the November 5th general election.