Tallahassee-The Florida Legislature has approved a bill (SB1294) that will temporarily increase the phosphate severance tax by $60 million during the next two years in order to pay for completing the closure of the two phosphate processing plants – Piney Point in Manatee County and Mulberry in Polk County – abandoned by Mulberry Phosphates. Phosphate companies, which approved the legislation, would receive credit for the higher fee for seven years, after the next two years. About $47 million will be needed to close Piney Point during the next two years and Mulberry in four years. Closure of the Mulberry plant was hampered as a result of three hurricanes that passed over the facility in recent years. The balance of the money will be spent to reclaim land mined before 1975, when reclamation became mandatory. The phosphate industry concluded that delaying the closings would increase cost and difficulty. A Mosaic Co. spokesman in Tallahassee said the severance tax was included as part of a larger budget package, which also had several controversial items, but Florida Gov. Charlie Crist was believed to be inclined to sign the bill. Florida has suffered a severe shortfall in revenues this year and last, and many critical areas of the state’s budget were cut back, including education, health care, and services to families and children.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain