The Florida Wildlife Federation (FWF) calls for land conservation spending to be added to the legislative special session.
The Florida Wildlife Federation today called on Florida Gov. Rick Scott, Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran and Florida Senate President Joe Negron to carry out voters’ will by including a proposal for funding the state’s conservation land-buying program in a special session of the Legislature.
“75 percent of voters approved the Florida Water and Land Conservation Initiative in 2014. They clearly directed our elected leaders to set aside some of our public tax dollars to buy conservation land so we have some of natural Florida left for future generations,” said Florida Wildlife Federation President Manley Fuller. “What does the 2017 Legislature do? Allocates zero money for land conservation. Zero. Lawmakers need to go back and fix this in a special session.”
“The Water and Land Conservation Initiative drew more voter support than any candidate. People don’t want this state paved from Pensacola to Key West. It’s ridiculous that the Legislature is ignoring the voters on this.”
Lawmakers have been discussing holding a special session to address implementing the Medical Marijuana Constitutional Initiative (Amendment 2) that voters approved in 2016. That amendment passed with 71 percent approval. In a letter to Senate colleagues about the Medical Marijuana initiative, Senate President Negron wrote: “I believe we should consider the best way to meet our constitutional obligation to implement Amendment 2.”
The Legislature also has a clear obligation to implement the Water and Land Conservation Amendment, which has the backing of 75 percent of Florida voters.