U.S. Sugar Spends Heavily On Lobbyists

Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter

MIAMI (CBSMiami/NSF) --  Compensation reports filed this month show U.S. Sugar Corp. spent a large sum of money on 13 lobbying firms for legislative work in the first three month of the year.

The exact amount that the company spent on lobbying is unclear from the reports, but the total is a minimum of $190,000. The biggest chunk of money, $74,000, went to the lobbying firm Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney.

Under state law, the other dozen lobbying firms only had to report their U.S. Sugar compensation in ranges, which were $1 to $9,999, $10,000 to $19,999, $20,000 to $29,999 and $40,000 to $49,999.

Just using the minimum amounts paid in each range would add $116,000 to the U.S. Sugar lobbying tab during the first quarter of the year, though the actual amounts could be substantially higher.

U.S. Sugar was in the middle of a debate during the regular legislative session about whether the state should carry out a 5-year-old plan to buy 46,800 acres of the company's land for Everglades restoration efforts.

The House and Senate did not move forward with the land buy, which was sought by environmental groups but opposed by U.S. Sugar.

(The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.)