Letters Protected lands provide flora haven In Aug. 25th’s Sentinel article “Volunteers rescue rare scrub plants on Dr. Phillips tract,” the attorney for the developer states that if state and environmental groups are concerned enough, they ought to be able to purchase these areas. Indeed, to facilitate the purchase of environmentally sensitive lands, Florida needs to once again fund its conservation land-buying programs. Between the late 1960s and 2009, Florida Forever and earlier conservation programs purchased properties as beloved as the Wekiwa Springs State Park using a portion of documentary-stamp taxes from real-estate transactions. The purchase of conservation lands using this funding mechanism has been widely supported by the public, but, unfortunately, in 2009, the Legislature directed this existing tax money to other purposes. If the conservation funding had still been there, this piece of rare scrub habitat adjacent to Dr. Phillips Park, an Orange County park, might have passed into public ownership as a preserve. Amendment 1, which we’ll vote on in November, will guarantee that a portion of our doc-stamp taxes are dedicated to funding the purchase of conservation lands and their management. Contrary to Aug. 27 letter-writer Andy Dubois (“Conservation amendment”), this will cost the public nothing additional in taxes. Rather, a portion of existing taxes will be directed, once again, to buying sensitive lands and conserving them for the future. I hope everyone will tell their family, friends, colleagues and neighbors about the importance of voting yes for Amendment 1. Kay Hudson Winter Park
Posted on: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 13:24:17 +0000
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