Years later, citrus canker fight grinds on

At this point, it’s not about trees anymore.

Broward homeowners who had their healthy trees cut down by the state during the 2000-2006 citrus canker scare have gotten over the shock. They’ve gotten over the insult of being compensated with a$50 Walmart gift card.

Now it’s about the principle.

“The governor and the Department of Agriculture are making a mockery of the Florida judicial system,” said Toby Bogorff of Davie. “This is bigger than my trees. This is an old debt for the taking of people’s property.”

Bogorff describes a sheriff’s deputy threatening her with arrest if she interfered with a tree-cutting crew with the sort of detachment that comes with 17 years of hindsight.

Beth Garcia of Hollywood

recalls coming home to find four stumps in her front yard with wistful sadness rather than shock. It’s been 12 years for her.

“I just would really like this to be over already,” Garcia said. “It’s just not fair. We all have to pay our debts don’t we? Well the state should, too.”

Theissue goes back to the citrus canker scare of 2000-2006, when the state hiredwork crews to go onto private property and cut down any tree within 1,900 feet of a tree that had the citrus canker disease, whether or not those trees exhibited symptoms.

The bacterial disease causes lesions to appear on fruitandleavesandweakens trees. Because the disease is airborne, the state cut down healthy trees in an ultimately fruitless attempt to halt the spread of the disease.

Some 58,000 families in BrowardCountylost trees to the cutting.

Everything seemed to be looking up after the Florida Legislature included $20.9 million in this year’s state budget to pay Broward County homeowners whose treeswere cut down.

That is, until Gov. Rick Scott vetoed the money. But that hasn’t stopped lawyers for the homeowners from going to the Florida SupremeCourt and asking it to throw out the veto. And that’s just the first of three ways that Broward homeowners who had trees cut down in the scare could still see payment.

The Florida Supreme Court

In a brief filed June 20, Bobby Gilbert, the homeowners’ attorney, argued that the state constitution clearly states that full compensation must be given when the state takes private property for the public good.

He also asserted that “the importance of deciding this issue before the commencementof thenewbudget year cannot be overstated” because after July 1, when the fiscalyear startsandthegovernor’s vetowent into effect, therewould be no money to pay the homeowners.

But Scott responded with his own constitutional argument that he has the authority to veto spending and that the court should give deference to his decisions under the separation of powers.

The fiscal year started without a reply from the court and now Gilbert is singing a different tune.

“It’s clear the money exists,” he said. “If the court rules in our favor, the state has the funds to pay these judgments. It may not be part of their approved budget now, but they certainly have the funds to do so.”

Afterwrappingupbudget negotiations in early June, state lawmakers touted more than $3 billion in reserves in this year’s state budget.

The Florida Supreme Court hasn’t made a decision in the case yet.

BrowardCircuit Court

If the Florida Supreme Court refuses to overturn Scott’s veto, there’s always a return to the lower courts.

Lee County homeowners also received funding for a citrus canker lawsuit settlement in this year’s budget— money that Scott also vetoed. On June 28, Lee County Circuit Judge Keith Kyle ordered Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam to pay homeowners within 40 days or else give a reason why the payment won’t be made.

Local homeowners are still awaiting a similar decision by Broward Circuit Court JudgeDavidHaimes.

On Friday, the Department of Agriculture filed an appeal ofHaimes’June8denial of its request to move the hearing to Tallahassee. Gilbert and the homeowners call this a delaying tactic.

But even without these delays, decisions in these cases will be appealed by either side all the way back to the state SupremeCourt.

“That road is the longer road,” Gilbert said. “The final decision will take months, then the losing party will appeal, which usually takes six to 12 months, and then it will percolate up to the Supreme Court of Florida. That route is certainly the lesser-preferred route.”

The Florida Legislature

And then, of course, there’s always next year’s budget. When Scott vetoed the money, he cited court cases that still had not been resolved. But the cases in BrowardandLeecounties— and others in Orange and Palm Beach counties — are over, with all appeals exhausted. The state owes the money.

However, a citrus canker case in Miami-Dade continues. That’s the basis for Scott’s vetoing the money in Broward and Lee counties.

“The governor’s claim that this couldn’t be approved based on ongoing litigation is so far off the mark that it’s laughable,” Gilbert said.

If that Miami-Dade case concludes — an unlikely event given that it’s dragged on for almost two decades and still hasn’t gone before a jury — there will be nothing to stop lawmakers from finally giving homeowners the money they’re owed by the state.

“I felt it was the right thing to do when the Legislature appropriated the money, andI really just don’t understand how Mr. Scott can keep using taxpayers’ money to fight this,” Garcia said. “I don’t know in what moral universe Rick Scott lives in that he can decide to not pay a debt.”