No. SB 1636
Filed under Environment & Water.
Big Cypress Basin; Revising the membership of the Big Cypress Basin governing board; requiring the South Florida Water Management District to revise the boundaries of the Big Cypress Basin based on a specified study at a specified time; requiring the South Florida Water Management District to ensure that basin ad valorem taxes collected within the Big Cypress Basin be used in a specified manner, etc.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDAt 11:59 p.m. on July 1, 2026, the water management district's board must redraw the Big Cypress Basin's boundary to match a 2021 scientific study, but may only include counties with at least a quarter of their area inside that line.
The governing board's membership is fixed at eight: six people from Collier County and two from Lee County, all living within the basin, replacing an older rule that only required at least five members living somewhere in the area.
Basin property taxes must now be spent only in the county where they were collected, funding flood control projects and maintenance there rather than being pooled for use anywhere in the wider basin.
AIAt 11:59 p.m. on July 1, 2026, the water management district's governing board must set the Big Cypress Basin's boundary to the scientific line recommended in a January 2021 study, replacing the original 1976 boundary description.
AIA county may be folded into the redrawn Big Cypress Basin only if at least a quarter of its own jurisdiction falls inside the study's recommended boundary line, screening out counties with only a marginal sliver inside the basin.
AIThe water management district must ensure basin ad valorem taxes collected in a given county are spent only on flood-control projects, operations, and maintenance within that same county, rather than pooled for use anywhere in the wider Big Cypress Basin.
AIThe Governor must appoint exactly six board members from Collier County and two from Lee County, all residing within the basin, replacing an open-ended rule that required only at least five members living somewhere in the basin area with no county-specific allocation.