Florida the rules are different here Chapter XIII

Here is some news from the Sun-Sentinel. In order to fight Citrus Canker, the State Dept. of Agriculture has been cutting down citrus trees that are within a certain distance of infected trees. To compensate people who have lost trees, Florida has been either giving cash or a Walmart card good for buying garden supplies.

As the Sentinel reports, the state of Florida has run out of money to compensate people. I lost trees about a year ago, and I got reimbursed by the state. At the moment 46,000 people in Florida aren't so lucky. Don't you just love Florida and its politicians and bureaucrats?

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The way Gentry Ellis and Virginia Jordan figure, the letters they got from state citrus canker officials were pulp fiction.

They're not alone. More than 46,000 people around Florida who lost their citrus trees this year to the controversial canker eradication program want their $100 Wal-Mart vouchers, but they will have to wait. The state doesn't have the money.

The money actually ran out in February. Now, the state also has run out of money for a second reimbursement program that pays $55 for every citrus tree cut down after the first one.

Jordan, of Boca Raton, let the state cut down her honeybell orange tree in early spring; she supports the canker eradication program.

"We understand that even healthy trees have to go," she said.

Then she applied for her $100 state voucher, good for plants and garden items at Wal-Mart. She became outraged as a matter of principle, after repeated calls to agricultural officials to find out when her voucher would arrive in the mail. Finally, she was told she wouldn't be paid.

"I've been hammering away at them. I called so many people that you wouldn't believe it," Jordan said. "It just blew my mind that they were calmly saying they have no money, when you have in writing they are going to pay you something."

Ellis, who lives in Delray Beach, also allowed his tangerine tree to be cut down. After all, he thought that fighting the system would just cost taxpayers. "It's my own tax money. Why waste it? Go ahead and cut the tree down, and then they entice you with the $100 voucher," Ellis said.

He, too, feels like he has been hit with a bait-and-switch. His tree was cut down in early August. Weeks went by. No $100 voucher in the mail. He called state officials, and was told the money was gone. Then he called the office of state Rep. Adam Hasner, R-Delray Beach, for answers. He said he was told he would eventually get the money, but not when.

"That's, like, give me $30,000 for my car, and I might give [the car] to you someday. You might get your money someday," Ellis said. "They should let you know you might not get your money. ... Let the person know what the game plan is."

The state ran out of money for the vouchers in February, agriculture spokeswoman Liz Compton said. The federal government had given Florida $15 million beginning in 2001 for the program, Compton said. "The 15 million lasted until February. Then we went back to the feds and asked for more, and they not only said, no, they said heck no," Compton said.

Though that money was gone, agricultural officials thought they could use other funds to cover the vouchers. It turned out they were prohibited by law from shifting the money, Compton said.

"It was not until August that we realized we didn't have any money," she said.State agriculture officials finally have gotten around to sending out notices to people who have not received their vouchers, telling them the program will have to get more money from the Legislature. They just recently posted the same information on their Web site.

If a homeowner had more than one tree removed, the state is supposed to issue a $55 check for each additional tree. That program, too, ran out of money at the end of November.

Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Bronson tried appealing to legislators to take up the funding issues during a special legislative session in December, but now it will have to wait for this spring's regular legislative session.

In a letter to legislators, Bronson said his phone lines are being flooded with complaints from "irate" residents. "While some people have contacted their local legislators, thousands have corresponded through our consumer help lines, e-mails and letters demanding their compensation," he wrote.