Florida still receives a thousand new residents daily and lands slated for restoration and wetland recovery are often bought and sold before the state has a chance to bid on them. The competitive pricing of real estate also drives it beyond the purchasing ability of the state.[85]  Because the State of Florida is assisting with purchasing lands and funding construction, some of the programs under CERP are vulnerable to state budget cuts.[86][87] In June 2008 Governor Crist announced that the State of Florida will buy U.S. Sugar for $1.7 billion. The idea came when sugar lobbyists were trying to persuade Crist to relax restriction of U.S. Sugar's practice of pumping phosphorus-laden water into the Everglades. According to one of the lobbyists who characterized it as a "duh moment", Crist said, "If sugar is polluting the Everglades, and we're paying to clean the Everglades, why don't we just get rid of sugar?"[64] The largest producer of cane sugar in the U.S. will continue operations for six years, and when ownership transfers to Florida, 187,000 acres (760 km2) of the Everglades will remain undeveloped to allow it to be restored to its pre-drainage state.[88]