Judge Sets March Hearings For Challenges to Florida Water District

BRADENTON, Fla. - A circuit judge Friday set aside three days next month to continue hearing challenges to the South Florida Water Management District's petition to validate $2.2 billion of certificates of participation.

The district plans to use $1.34 billion of COPs to buy U.S. Sugar Corp.'s 180,000 acres of sugar cane fields and citrus groves and had filed a petition to have the certificates validated. The remainder of the COP authorization provides the district with flexibility for other capital needs.

But four petitions opposing the validation have been filed.

The first validation hearing was Friday in the Circuit Court of the 15th Judicial District in Palm Beach County, where the water district is headquartered. After procedural arguments, Circuit Judge Donald Hafele continued the hearing to March 16 and set aside several days for the proceedings.

"The South Florida Water Management District is satisfied with today's progress toward validating its authority to issue certificates of participation under Florida law for Everglades restoration," said a statement by district officials on Friday.

Some opponents believe the proposed financing doesn't meet the public purpose test required to use COPs because they claim the purchase is an attempt to bail out a private company.

The district's board of governors tomorrow will get an update on the court hearing as well as the schedule for consummating the actual purchase of the land.

Attorneys and some water management district officials have said they believe the COP validation case could eventually wind up before the Florida Supreme Court.

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