Monroe County projects in play as Florida budget special session opens

A 4 million-gallon-a-day seawater plant on Crawl Key could become a backup lifeline for the Upper Keys, and a workforce-housing project on Trumbo Road in Key West could either move forward or stall, as Florida lawmakers try to settle a budget that still leaves Monroe County with real stakes.

When the Florida House and Florida Senate returned to Tallahassee on May 12, they were still about $1 billion apart on spending, even after leaders said most of the major issues had been worked out. The House had approved a $113.6 billion budget, the Senate was at $115 billion and Gov. Ron DeSantis’ proposal was later described as a $117.4 billion plan that included $16.75 billion in reserves and $250 million for debt reduction. State Rep. Jim Mooney said he expected lawmakers to land somewhere in the middle and move quickly during the 18-day special session.

For Monroe County, the numbers matter because the spending plan includes money tied directly to local infrastructure and services. The Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority says its Crawl Key reverse-osmosis facility would be a 4 million-gallon-per-day seawater plant, built to serve as an alternative water source if the main transmission line is disrupted. That kind of backup matters in a place where one outage, storm or line failure can ripple through homes, businesses and public services from Key Largo to Key West.

A separate FKAA project page says the Stock Island reverse-osmosis facility is meant to replace the flash desalination facility and provide backup supply until the new large-diameter pipeline from Florida City becomes operational. Together, those projects show how much of the Keys’ daily life depends on water systems that can survive storm damage and disruption.

Another local line item is the Florida Keys Stewardship Act, which Monroe County says secures a recurring set-aside of Florida Forever money for land acquisition in the Keys and also supports state appropriations for water-quality projects. A new $20 million water-quality allocation remains part of the budget fight, and Keys governments have disagreed over how it should be split after earlier money was divided through an interlocal agreement. The state has sent $80 million to the Keys through the stewardship program over the past four years, and earlier reporting put the total at about $90 million since 2016.

The College of the Florida Keys and affordable workforce housing on Trumbo Road in Key West are also in the mix, leaving Monroe County waiting to see which projects are funded, which are trimmed and which survive when the final budget clears its 72-hour cooling-off period and heads to the governor.