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County attorney says Biscayne Bay retains $20 million in state budget; several bills affecting boating and plastics died or changed
Summary
Jess McCarty, Miami-Dade County attorney in Tallahassee, told the advisory board that the legislature’s budget negotiation preserved a $20 million recurring allocation for Biscayne Bay projects. He also summarized bills on plastics preemption, anchoring limits, derelict vessels and boating safety under consideration or that failed in 2025.
Jess McCarty, Miami-Dade County’s representative in Tallahassee, briefed the Biscayne Bay Watershed Management Advisory Board on the 2025 legislative session and on budget conference negotiations that affect the county’s bay-related funding.
McCarty said the House and Senate both funded Biscayne Bay at $20,000,000 in the conference committee, and that the apparent mismatch earlier in the week was a spreadsheet interpretation issue that had been resolved. “There was never a point when the house and the senate did not both fund Biscayne Bay at 20,000,000,” he said.
He listed several items still in conference on water projects and noted specific local requests still under consideration, including funding proposals for boating safety ($100,000), Goulds Canal and C-9 Canal projects (amounts referenced in the meeting), and $250,000 for bay monitoring and telemetry. McCarty said many water project appropriations remained unresolved in the conference process.
McCarty also summarized bills that had been active during the session. He identified “Senate Bill 18 22” as a plastics preemption measure that ultimately died during negotiations; “House Bill 4 81” would impose new restrictions on anchoring time and expand no-anchoring areas around some islands; “Senate Bill 8 30” and related House sponsors addressed migrant and derelict vessels and tools for Florida Fish and Wildlife; “HB 2 89” increased some boating-safety penalties (referred to as “Lucy’s law” during the discussion); and “Senate Bill 13 88,” described as a boater freedom act, passed and may constrain law enforcement’s ability to board vessels without probable cause, a change McCarty said could complicate Bay enforcement.
Board members used the briefing to thank local supporters in Tallahassee and to ask follow-up questions about the status of individual projects and how the budget conference would resolve outstanding items. McCarty said the legislature planned to have the budget on the governor’s desk by mid-June following the conference committee work.
