"It's the environment, Stupid"

LTE that appeared in the Herald Tribune:

Help me to understand this:

Hundreds of thousands of gallons of raw sewage flow into our streams, rivers and the Gulf, and the best our state Senate representative Joe Gruters can do is propose slapping a fine on cash-strapped municipalities?

This, while his Republican-led Florida State Legislature focuses on ripping through the heartland with new highways, looking out for the interests of developers and once again denying the will of the people by short-changing funding—by hundreds of millions of dollars -- for the purchase and preservation of Florida lands as intended in Amendment One, approved by 75% of the voters in 2014.

There are only two ways to fix this. Either hope that the industry folks who lobby for municipal water treatment projects can outspend the highway construction and home development lobbyists and get the Governor and the Republican-led State Legislature to change their ways, or rally the voters to a cry of “It’s the environment, Stupid” to replace “It’s the economy, Stupid” and work harder than ever to throw the bums in Tallahassee out the door in the next election.   

Bob Clark
Venice, FL