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Land Buying Amendment Closing In on Success

December 4th, 2013 by flanews

Florida Environmentalists are closing in on a magic number of signatures they need to put a land buying amendment on next year’s ballot. They expect to cross the finish line next week.

A third of every dollar in taxes on real estate deals in Florida goes into a trust fund. The money is supposed to be used to buy land to conserve. But each year lawmakers raid the trust fund and leave only a portion, if any, for land conservation.

After being cut year after year, environmentalists are close to collecting enough signatures to force a vote next November. If successful, lawmakers would have to spend the money on land and water conservation. “We think by next week we’ll cross the nine hundred ten thousand mark and that is, you know if you collect nine hundred ten thousand you essentially have 25 percent that aren’t valid, we’re comfortable that that’s going to get us- that’s going to get us there,” says Aliki Moncrief, Water and Land Legacy.

In its first year the amendment would guarantee about 650 million for land purchases, it would grow each year as the state grows. “It’s basically taking a portion of a fee that’s collected anyway, it’s a collection that is very much tied to development,” says Moncrief.

No one opposed this amendment when it was before the Florida Supreme Court, but that is about to be changing.

State lawmakers who control purse strings are starting to complain, and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam says he supports conserving land, But… “It seems like bad public  policy to try write the state’s budget into the constitution,” Adam Putnam, Agriculture Commissioner.

If approved by 60 percent those who vote next November, the Amendment would only stay in the Constitution for the next 20 years.

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