TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Three of every four voters in 2014 said they wanted to use an existing tax source to fund land and water acquisition, but nearly one in three dollars of that money is being spent somewhere else this year, and environmentalists aren’t happy.
Conservationists say Earth Day is a good day to remember why the amendment was needed. They are planning voter outreach to let voters know who is a friend to the environment this fall and who isn’t.
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The land and water conservation amendment received more votes than any statewide elected official. It was a rebuke of lawmakers who slashed environment funding during the recession, then didn’t restore it when the economy improved.
"Almost a third, arguably a quarter to a third (of tax funds), are being spent on existing agency operations," said Will Abberger, who ran the campaign. "That’s not what voters voted for when 4.2 million said yes on Amendment One."
The amendment dedicates one-third of the taxes on land transactions that were already being collected to environmental spending. Environmentalists say lawmakers haven’t listened to voters as much as they should.
"When we focus on all of the money that has been misspent by the Legislature, one of the things that gets lost is how overwhelming voters turned out," said Aliki Moncrief, of Florida Conservation Voters.
Florida Conservation Voters created a website detailing how the $900 million that’s supposed to go to land and water conservation is being spent, including the entire cost of fighting forest fires in Florida and the cost of enforcing boating regulations on the water.
The conservation money is even paying the salaries of the people who run the agencies that have anything to do with conservation.
Lawmakers defended the spending, saying running agencies that have ties to the environment is part of the cost of conservation. Environmentalists don’t think voters will buy it.