The Florida Supreme Court approved the first proposed constitutional amendment slated for next year’s ballot — a water and land conservation measure that could set aside $10 billion over the next two decades for environmental efforts.
The Florida Land and Water Legacy, the organization sponsoring the effort, is more than halfway to the 683,149 petition signatures needed to get on the November ballot, an amount representing 8 percent of all registered voters who cast ballots in the last general election.
“This is monumental step as we continue gathering petitions to place this important measure on the ballot,” said Will Abberger, the campaign’s chairman and director of conservation finance for The Trust for Public Land. ”Our campaign is proving that Floridians care deeply about our state’s natural heritage and want to safeguard it for future generations.”
The amendment would earmark one-third of the state’s documentary stamp tax dollars, drawn from real-estate transactions, for conservation, management, and restoration of Florida’s water and land for 20 years, beginning in July 2015.
