Proposed state budgets are providing a mixed bag for Citrus County, though its priorities were mostly ignored.

Neither the House nor Senate budgets provide funding for the Cross Florida Barge Canal boat ramp or a new fire station at the Inverness Airport.

Three Citrus County projects are included in both budgets, albeit at different amounts.

Sen. Blaise Ingoglia promised to advocate for $350,000 for the revitalization of Crystal Memorial Gardens, a historic African American cemetery just outside the Crystal River city limits. Ingoglia, a Spring Hill Republican, visited the cemetery with project organizer Andrea McCray last September.

The House budget has $175,000 earmarked for Crystal Memorial Gardens.

As expected, the Senate’s list of Citrus projects far exceeds that of the House, where Inverness Rep. JJ Grow is in his first Regular Session. Citrus projects total $1.4 million in the House and $8.9 million in the Senate.

Other budget highlights are:

— Jessie’s Place, the Child Advocacy Center of Citrus County named for Jessica Lunsford, is in the House budget for $100,000 and Senate for $200,000 for an expansion.

— The Homosassa River Restoration Project, which has had mixed success obtaining consistent year-to-year state funding, has $1 million in the House budget and $2 million in the Senate.

— The Academy of Environmental Sciences has $120,000 in the House budget but nothing in the Senate for upgrades to the public charter school.

— The Senate budget has $573,554 for LifeStream Behavioral Centers’ Baker Act facility in Citrus County, which is under construction. There is no money in the House budget for the Baker Act project.

— Only one Citrus County government project made either budget. The County requested $5 million for the Halls River Road multiuse path in Homosassa. The Senate has $1 million; there is nothing in the House version.

— The Senate proposes $350,000 for new Sheriff Dave Vincent’s plan for body-worn cameras; there’s nothing in the House budget.

— $2 million is in the Senate budget for the Save Crystal River restoration project. Nothing is in the House proposal.

— The Senate budget includes $1.5 million to design the widening of County Road 491 between Pine Ridge Boulevard and U.S. 41. Citrus County did not request the funding; rather, it was on behalf of a company that plans a 5,000-home lagoon development near Beverly Hills called Tuscany Ranch.

The project has yet to go through the public hearing process. Nothing is approved.

County Commission Chair Rebecca Bays said the request came through the Southern Group, where former Commissioner Ruthie Schlabach, ousted in the August 2024 Primary, now works as a lobbyist.

The County is undergoing a corridor study for an eventual widening project. County Administrator Steve Howard said the developer made the request with the county agreeing to accept funds if they’re approved.

“This is something this developer has done in other places,” Bays said. “If they can get funding for roads and offset what it takes from the county coffers, I guess it’s trying to be a good partner.”

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Technology companies are identifying the first popular social media platforms covered under Florida’s new law banning such services for young teens: Snapchat and YouTube. The acknowledgement came in the latest federal court filings as part of a renewed legal fight challenging whether the restrictions are constitutional.

The court records said Facebook and Instagram might also be covered because they “appear to satisfy each of the criteria” under the new law. The companies cited references to Instagram and Facebook by Republican lawmakers who identified which social media companies they were targeting with the bill during its passage last year.

The new filings, submitted late Friday in U.S. District Court in Tallahassee, relaunched the landmark legal case seeking to overturn the state law, which bans some social media accounts for teens younger than 16, or for 14- and 15-year-olds without a parent’s permission.

U.S. Judge Mark Walker weeks ago threw out an earlier version of a lawsuit by the technology industry because he said it failed to specify which social media companies might be affected under the law. He gave two trade groups leading the court fight until midnight Monday to refile a new lawsuit.

The law affects only social media companies with 10% or more of daily active users who are younger than 16 and who spend on average two hours or more on the app, and have what lawmakers describe as addictive features like push notifications or serving up new videos endlessly. If all conditions aren’t met, the platform wouldn’t be affected.

The new court filings included representatives of Snapchat and YouTube saying their platforms would or likely would be impacted by Florida’s law, which went into effect in January but hasn’t been enforced yet by the state’s Attorney General.

The senior director of Snapchat, David Boyle, said the app was covered under Florida’s new law but already has protections in place for young teens. Neither Snapchat or YouTube requires users who are 14 or 15 to obtain a parent’s permission before opening an account, the court records said.

“Minors can only view direct messages from users with whom they are already friends on the platform or already have in their phone’s contacts,” he said. “The teen will receive an in-app warning that this person is outside the teen’s network.”

Boyle said Snapchat also offers resources from mental health experts for users.

When the bill was introduced in last year’s Legislative Session, sponsors said that the mental health of minors who excessively use social media was a main concern. They said the platforms increased depression and loneliness among young teens.

Alexandra Veitch, director of public policy for the Americas at YouTube, said the company would be affected under Florida’s law because its use of algorithms curates content for users and allows users to enable push notifications.

Veitch could not gather data on whether 10% or more of daily active users who are younger than 16 and who spend on average two hours or more on the app, because demographics are constantly changing — but she said that based on historical data YouTube could be affected.

Attorneys for the trade groups that are plaintiffs in the case said parents in Florida can already employ restrictions for their children’s usage.

“In a nation that values the First Amendment, the preferred response is to let parents decide what speech and mediums their minor children may access — including by utilizing the many available tools to monitor their activities on the Internet,” the new lawsuit said.

The companies renewed their request for a preliminary injunction to temporarily block the law. It wasn’t clear when the Judge would decide whether to grant that request. The Judge said he would schedule the next steps in the case on Thursday morning.

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This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The reporter can be reached at [email protected]. You can donate to support our students here.

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Gov. Ron DeSantis is getting into the fight over carbon sequestration in Florida, posting a video blasting legislation that he says supports “a scam.”

The video comes on the eve of a committee hearing on a measure (HB 1063) from Democratic Rep. Lindsay Cross that would establish a multidisciplinary task force to develop a framework for a state-level carbon sequestration program, evaluating how the state can optimize carbon storage in natural and agricultural areas and combat climate change.

DeSantis says the process is a scam and “part of climate ideology.” Cross rejects that notion.

So, what is carbon sequestration? It’s “the process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide. It is one method of reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere with the goal of reducing global climate change,” according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

There are two types: Geologic carbon sequestration pressurizes CO2 until it becomes a liquid, and then injects that liquid into porous rock formations for storage; biologic carbon sequestration stores atmospheric carbon in vegetation, soils, woody products and aquatic environments. Supporters of carbon sequestration, particularly biologic, argue that by encouraging plant growth, particularly larger plants such as trees, CO2 can be removed from the atmosphere.

And it’s not just an artificial process, it happens in nature, too. Plants, soils and the ocean act as “carbon sinks” to absorb and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is a major contributor to climate change.

But DeSantis wants the bill shot down. in his video, he expressed frustration that a “Republican supermajority” was focusing time on something voters don’t want, arguing instead they should be focusing on property tax or “voter freedom.” 

“Don’t indulge the left with carbon sequestration,” he ends in the video.

But the effort is bipartisan. While Cross is carrying the bill in the House, Republican Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez is sponsoring an identical bill (SB 1148) in the upper chamber. They both carried similar measures in the 2024 Legislative Session, but the effort died before hitting either chamber floor.

This year’s legislation could gain more traction. It removes funding for the task force and instead leaves the option open to seek funding in future fiscal years. It would also add the presence of a geologist on the task force.

“Carbon sequestration is not a hoax, it’s actually happening in our wetlands, our reefs,” Cross told Florida Politics, pointing to natural occurrences already happening. “It’s happening whether we’re thinking about it or not and the purpose of this bill is to understand how to better leverage our natural and agricultural areas and be better positioned for investment from the private market.”

The bill does not seek to engage in carbon sequestration acts, rather to study suitable habitats and land uses for carbon sequestration, along with methodology, metrics and benchmarks.

Tuesday’s hearing in the Natural Resources and Disasters Subcommittee at 12:30 p.m. will be the first of three committee stops for Cross’ bill. But the Senate version from Rodriguez is already moving. It cleared its first committee, Environment and Natural Resources, on an 8-0 vote earlier this month. It heads next to the Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment, and General Government, followed by Rules, though hearings are not yet set on the bill in those committees.

In years past, DeSantis’ thumb on the scales could have meant certain death for the bills. But this year lawmakers have reasserted themselves as a coequal branch of government, pushing back on DeSantis over his past budget vetoes and his plans for immigration enforcement. With that in mind, Tuesday’s hearing on the bill may offer insight into whether DeSantis’ opposition still carries weight.

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