Palm Beach County Circuit Court Judge Upholds Part of U.S. Sugar Everglades Restoration Deal

Both the Sun-Sentinel and the Palm Beach Post have articles relating to Palm Beach County Circuit Court Judge Donald Hafele's ruling today relating to the states Everglades restoration deal with U.S. Sugar. A statement by Governor Crist can be found here. Other articles can be found at the AP, the Miami Herald, the South Florida Business Journal, and again at the Miami Herald.

The Sun-Sentinel article begins:

A judge's ruling Wednesday kept alive Gov. Charlie Crist's bid for a half-billion-dollar Everglades restoration land deal with U.S. Sugar Corp.

But Palm Beach County Circuit Court Judge Donald Hafele struck down the proposal to borrow as much as $2.2 billion for additional land buys from U.S. Sugar and to help pay for construction of reservoirs and treatment areas that would be built on the farmland.

The ruling allows the South Florida Water Management District to move forward with its $536 million plan to buy an initial 73,000 acres from U.S. Sugar. However, the ruling also calls into question whether Crist and the district, which leads Everglades restoration, will be able to buy an additional 107,000 acres from U.S. Sugar as proposed.