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Florida’s legislature hopes to avoid another lawsuit before it starts. As Matt Galka tells us, environmental money is the cause of the latest courtroom drama.

The Florida legislature wants to stop a land and water lawsuit before it hast the chance to make a splash.  Five environmental groups sued the state in June after a battle over Amendment 1 funding.

David Guest is managing attorney at Earth Justice – one of the groups in the lawsuit. He says voters supported the amendment because they wanted environmental protections, but the legislature is ignoring that with the way they allocated money.

“What this case is about is fulfilling the wishes of three quarters of Florida voters,” he said.

Legislative attorneys say that the courts can’t tell lawmakers how to spend public money. They filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit last week. The Senate President’s office referred us to the motion made by attorney’s. House Speaker Steve Crisafulli responded in a statement saying:

“The House filed a motion to dismiss because we faithfully implemented Article X, Section 28 of the Florida Constitution.”

Guest doesn’t agree.

“The constitution says how that money is supposed to be spent. The legislature does not have the power to say the constitution doesn’t apply to them,” he said.

He says the ultimate decision will most likely come from a higher level.

“This case is going to the State Supreme Court without a doubt,” said Guest.

Guest says the lawsuit is meant to clarify exactly what the legislature can fund with the money.  They had around $700 million dollars to spend this year, with a majority going towards agency operations and not land buying.

70 percent of voters approved amendment 1 last fall.