The tendency to focus budget cuts on environmental programs is getting noticed nationally. Over Thanksgiving Weekend, the Miami Herald and over 200 other newspapers published an article featuring Audubon of Florida's Director of Advocacy Charles Lee discussing this important topic.

The story points to budget cuts impacting a wide array of natural resource programs nationwide harming environmental restoration, the management of exotic species, and protection of natural lands. The Greater Everglades and recent cuts to the water management district budgets played prominently in the article. It is interesting to see the similar impact of budget reductions in other states, giving credence to the concept that focused cuts reducing environmental programs may be part of an actual “agenda” being pressed by pro-resource development and anti-environment interest groups.

From The Miami Herald:

Florida Gov. Rick Scott's first budget included his veto of a $500,000 water quality study on Lake Okeechobee and some $20 million in cuts to Everglades' restoration. Scott, a Republican, said the steps were necessary to balance a state budget hard hit by home foreclosures and real estate losses.

But the Republican-dominated Florida Legislature also cut $210 million from property tax revenue intended for local water-management districts that protect Florida's swamplands. Environmentalists blasted those cuts, complaining they were meant to help Scott fulfill pledge to cut taxes.

"It would have been appropriate for there to have been some level of budget reductions," Audubon of Florida advocacy director Charles Lee said. "But it's clear what happened in Tallahassee in 2011 was targeted, ideologically driven, and I would add, mean-spirited."