BRADENTON, Fla. - Florida conservation groups obtained enough petition signatures to ask voters to approve a designated funding source, and the use of bond financing, to purchase environmentally sensitive lands.
Their effort, called Florida's Water and Land Legacy, obtained 685,971 valid signatures - 2,822 more than required - to put the question on the Nov. 4 ballot, they announced Jan. 16.
Voters will be asked to amend the state constitution and for the next 20 years designate 33% of net revenues from Florida's documentary stamp tax on real estate transfers to finance the acquisition of conservation lands to preserve wetlands, forests, fish and wildlife habitat, lands that protect water quality and drinking water, beaches and shores, and land in the Everglades.
Language is specifically included to allow for the payment of debt service on bonds.
If it is approved, the amendment would take effect on July 1, 2015. Supporters believe it will raise $648 million in 2015 and as much as $10 billion over 20 years.
"This will be the largest state-based conservation initiative in United States history," Florida Wildlife Federation President Manley Fuller told the Tampa Bay Times.
Coalition members, including the Wildlife federation, the Trust for Public Land, Audubon Florida, and the Sierra Club say they believe that voters will support the amendment because of deep state budget funding cuts to environmental land purchases.
Florida had financed billions over two decades for some of the largest environmental programs acquisition and restoration programs in the country but there has been a dearth of state funding since 2009, in part, because real estate sales dropped severely in the recession.
