Miami-Dade lawmakers urged water managers Wednesday not to make a deal with U.S. Sugar -- at least until the Florida Legislature has time to scrutinize the details of the $1.34 billion land purchase for Everglades restoration.

Saying there were too many unresolved questions -- from whether the state was overpaying to how the deal would sock taxpayers -- lawmakers pressed the South Florida Water Management District's governing board to postpone a vote scheduled for Tuesday that could finalize the deal.

''I think it would be in everybody's best interest to punt,'' said Rep. Luis Garcia, D-Miami Beach, who is vice chair of the county's legislative delegation.

It was a request, but it came with warnings of political consequences if ignored. The Legislature has no legal authority over water board members, who are appointed by the governor, but it can control some district funding.

The delegation's chairman, Rep. Juan Zapata, R-West Kendall, said the ''rushed'' negotiations seemed intended to avoid input from lawmakers. Gov. Charlie Crist announced the deal in June.

Eric Buermann, a Miami attorney who chairs the governing board, said he would pass along the request, but stressed that the contract required a vote on Tuesday.

Buermann told lawmakers he had not made up his mind, but that he shared many of their concerns. Still, he said, the deal would help restore water flow for the Everglades and resolve many of the region's most expensive and long-standing environmental problems, such as polluted runoff that fouls coastal waters with algae blooms and red tide.

''This is causing billions of dollars of economic damage, tourism damage, environmental damage,'' he said. `The vision is to restore what Mother Nature conceived.''

The eight of the 25 delegation members who attended Wednesday's meeting said they supported Everglades restoration but feared the deal's costs would exceed its benefits.

While water managers said the deal would not force a property tax hike, Rep. Steve Bovo, R-Hialeah, argued the estimated $4 billion cost of future reservoirs and pollution-treatment marshes would hit taxpayers and the strained state budget.

''The billions keep adding up, and soon we'll be talking trillions,'' he said.

Zapata said he was troubled by the timing of a deal that water managers acknowledged would delay the construction projects for years -- at a time when jobs were disappearing.

''We basically eliminate the projects to do land acquisition,'' he said.

Robert Coker, a U.S. Sugar vice president, said the company would view any vote delay as a final rejection.

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