Since then, environmentalist Mary Barley has filed a class action suit that has been heard by the Florida Supreme Court. Barley demands that the state carry out the wishes of the state's voters when they passed the Polluters Pay Amendment.

The constitutional amendment says that those responsible for elevated levels of phosphorus -- such as sugar growers who use it in fertilizer -- should pay to restore the Everglades to its natural level of phosphorus.

Despite the clear message from Florida voters, Florida's taxpayers, and not corporate polluters, continue to bear the bulk of the cleanup costs. South Florida Water Management District collects a tax from 6 million property owners in 15 counties that equals more than three times the amount collected from the agriculture industry, which pays just $24.89 per acre.

In 2002, the court, in effect, dodged Barley's suit by ordering the state Legislature to clarify Polluters Pay before it takes effect.

This year the Legislature dodged the court's ruling and reauthorized the tax for another 10 years. The Legislature was busy easing the acceptable phosphorous level for the Everglades and slowing the timetable for reaching that level.

In Monroe County, the tax collected from property owners by the South Florida Water Management District equates to about $20 for a $250,000 home, for a total of $2 million. That's not a lot of money per taxpayer, but we in the Keys are footing the bill for polluters hundreds of miles away.

Dirty water from the Everglades flows into the Gulf of Mexico and Florida Bay and ultimately diminishes the water quality right here in the Keys. We should be using that $2 million to clean up our own pollution.

Instead, state lawmakers, led by Gov. Jeb Bush, ignored the will of the voters and passed the cost of cleanup to residents. They have confirmed that they care more about appeasing Big Sugar lobbyists than living up to the spirit of the Everglades Forever Act.

Everglades Forever, passed in 1994, was the beginning of a massive, $8 billion restoration project to save the marshland. It created a partnership between the state and federal governments, which many in Washington have warned may be jeopardized by the state's backtracking on Everglades funding and cleanup levels.

There was a great deal of hand-shaking and back-slapping as each entity passed legislation funding the project, and there were a lot of politicians taking credit for the legislation and calling themselves environmentalists.

But this year's actions by the state Legislature to extend the deadline for phosphorus cleanup and ignore demands to make polluters pay marked a blatant shirking of responsibility by elected officials.

On Britain and the euro:

It is a bad idea to hold a referendum if one is positively sure in advance that one will lose.

That alone was a wise and realistic decision, which British Finance Minister Gordon Brown made public last week when he decided that Britain's decision to take part in the euro was once again sent to the sidelines.

Very few doubt that the British government -- especially Prime Minister Tony Blair -- very much would like Britain to be a part of the euro. However, the opinion polls have always indicated that it will be hard to get a "yes" in a country that traditionally has been skeptical of the European Union.

-- Berlingske Tidende, Copenhagen, Denmark