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Hillsborough Land-Conservation Program Gains Clout

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By MIKE SALINERO

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 17, 2008

TAMPA - Supporters of Hillsborough County's land conservation program know they face challenges in getting voters to renew a tax to purchase undeveloped land.

Residents are struggling in a sour economy, and the land-buying measure could get lost on a Nov. 4 ballot crowded with other initiatives and a presidential contest. To make voters aware of the need to renew the Environmental Lands Acquisition and Protection Program, supporters knew they needed a big name.

They got one.

Bob Martinez, former governor of Florida and ex-mayor of Tampa, will be co-chairman of a citizens committee to campaign for the ballot referendum. Martinez, a Republican who served as governor from 1986-90, will join former county commissioner and Democrat Jan Platt in leading the campaign committee.

The two agreed to speak to civic clubs and other organizations to raise awareness of the program. Martinez said he also will help raise money for the campaign.

County commissioners unanimously approved putting the measure on the ballot Wednesday after listening to a host of supporters, including Martinez and Platt. The former governor said the program stands a good chance of being renewed by voters because it benefits both the public and private land owners.

"It's been managed so well it's going to be a good campaign to keep it going," he said.

Martinez said he became interested in land conservation when he served on the board of the Southwest Florida Water Management District prior to becoming mayor in 1979. As governor, he started Preservation 2000, a state conservation land-buying program that became Florida Forever.

Platt is credited with coming up with the idea of a county land conservation program when she led the county commission in the 1980s. In 1988, 71 percent of voters approved taxing themselves to pay for the program. Two years later, nearly 73 percent of voters approved financing land purchases through $100 million in bond issues.

Since that time, the county has purchased more than 44,000 acres enjoyed each year by thousands of hikers, bird-watchers, kayakers and canoeists.

"There's never been a blemish on this program because it's citizen-based and it takes a willing land seller," Platt said.

The referendum would authorize the county to borrow up to $200 million through bond sales to buy conservation land.

The bonds are paid back by a maximum property tax assessment of 25 cents per $1,000 in assessed property value. That would equate to $50 annually for a home with a taxable value of $200,000.

Platt predicted the referendum will pass based on the large majorities that supported it in the past two referendums. But the county's population has grown by 324,000 people since the 1990 referendum. A poll commissioned by the ELAPP general committee this year showed 67 percent of respondents had never heard of the program.

"That's why we're having a campaign: to inform those who haven't been here and don't understand that maybe the land next door to them was acquired by this program," Platt said.

Martinez acknowledged that winning approval for the program will not be easy. In addition to federal, state and local elections, there are several state constitutional amendments on the ballot.

"It's a county referendum so it will probably be on the lower part of the ballot," Martinez said.

Reporter Mike Salinero can be reached at (813) 259-8303 or msalinero@tampatrib.com.

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