The Manatee Money Plan

Broward County asked the question: Who should pay the tab for our manatee protection program? And it's about to settle on the answer: Marina developers.

Here's the plan: For every new boat slip a developer wants to build, he or she must pay a $750 initial fee and an annual $20 fee. All that money will go to protecting the threatened sea cow—everything from better warning signs to increased enforcement of manatee zones.

If you live in Broward, you might want to weigh in on this before the County Commission takes up the issue in the next few months. One of the committee members recently expressed a likely, if cynical, scenario. Bernie Gartner told the Sun Sentinel that any new fees will just get passed down to the consumer: "Whoever's paying for it, it's going to come back to the boater."