Voters from Florida are now going to decide whether or not the Water and Land Conservation constitutional amendment should be passed, during the November 2014 ballot.
On January 16, the Water and Land Legacy of Florida – the group seeking to push through the proposed amendment, announced that it had received the number of signatures required to put the amendment proposal up for voting on the November ballot.
About the Water and Land Conservation constitutional amendment
The amendment seeks to set aside $10 billion from Florida’s state funds for the purpose of land and water conservation, over a period of 20 years. Conservationists began pushing for the amendment after the government slashed funding reserved for the Florida Forever program.
The program, which aims to purchase and manage critical pieces of land that are environmentally endangered, received most of its funding from taxes on real estate purchases and leases before the slashing of funds. The proposed amendment makes no attempts to increase the real estate spending tax and has revived the approval of a majority of the real estate agents in Orlando and Florida.
Florida’s Division of Elections website mentioned that the Water and Land Legacy had in fact overshot the required number of signatures by 2,822 by submitting an impressive 685,971 signatures on Thursday morning.
Improving land and water quality will have various positive implications
Water and land quality issues impact multiple areas of Florida’s economy, including the real estate market. In booming markets like that of central Florida and Orlando, environment-friendly campaigns like the protection of natural areas and water sources go on to boost consumer sentiments in real estate investments.
These programs also attract prospective home buyers to the neighborhood, and Orlando realtors expect to see increased activity in the Orlando real estate market. With the Water and Land Legacy group surpassing signature thresholds in 15 of the 27 Congressional districts of the state of Florida, it is clear that residents are growing increasingly concerned about the water quality issues in the state.
Will Abberger, Chairman of the campaign launched by the organization said the amendment would focus on spending funds to acquire new pieces of conservation or recreation lands, manage the existing ones and protect land and water sources that were critical for freshwater supply, in a bid to restore degrading natural systems in and around the state.
The Senate has already started working on a $220 million funding package that would be used to improve the water quality of the Lake Okeechobee and Everglades. There also exist several other spending programs in the pipeline and come November 2014, the people of Florida will put the Water and Land Conservation Amendment in action if 60 percent of the total voters pitch their votes in favor of the bill. https://orlandorealtyconsultants.com/
