In March 1999 the voters of Sarasota County voted to approve an increase to the ad valorem tax up to .25 mills until 2019, while at the same time authorizing the County to issue up to $53 million in bonded indebtedness in order to buy environmentally sensitive lands. To date, the program has borrowed up to the total amount allowed of $53 million, and the tax payers are now being asked to do two things. First, extend the tax past 2019 to 2029, and second to allow the County to bond up to $250 million in debt that matures in 2029. Argus supported the first acquisition initiative. Our members and the community were even involved in its design. However, this time around we encourage our members to vote “NO” on the expansion of the environmentally sensitive lands program

The program that is currently in place still has fourteen years to run. As property values continue to increase, the revenues of the program will continue to escalate. Based upon the County projections, the funds for property acquisition should annually increase at a rate of 6% (conservative compared to the County’s real taxable assessed value growth of approximately 12.4% per year over the past five years) and by 2019 we will be collecting $18.7 million per year, and will have collected over $135 million over the last 15 years of the program. Certainly it makes sense to be able to float bonds to support our purchases over the next 15 years, but why are we extending the program to 2029? No, we are not opposed to finishing out this program in a financially sensible fashion by extending the bond program that will allow us to buy environmentally sensitive lands at today’s prices. What we are concerned about is this question: Are we committing our community resources to the best uses for our families and our businesses? This referendum offers no paired decisions for government spending, and presupposes that bonding another $250 million for more land acquisition is the best use for additional County taxpayer money.

We feel that there are alternatives that haven’t been addressed. Given no alternatives, the public is not being given a choice in this referendum. Perhaps there are other issues requiring more immediate attention. For example:

• Funding a north-south arterial road to serve as a reliever to I-75 is long overdue.
• How about $250 million for better roads?
• How about $250 million for land acquisition for affordable housing in the land trust?
• How about $250 million for a pollution program to address runoff into our bays and estuaries by accelerating sewer construction of Phillippi Creek, creating more retention basins for storm water run off, and supporting greater research funding for reducing what has become a continuing red tide outbreak?
• What are the future implications of the quality of life and the future of Sarasota County if all of these issues continue to be short of funding?

The Argus Foundation Board of Directors believes that no amount of land purchases will improve any of these issues without adequate funding. As citizens of Sarasota County and her municipalities, we are faced with both local and national taxation issues. In March 2006 we were once again called to referendum to fund our schools. At some point we will be called to task by our Federal Government to begin to repay our massive national debt. The public ability to continue funding public projects will be based upon public priority. Those priorities should be established today.

If the November 8 referendum fails we will call for our elected officials to return to the public and ask them to issue bonds for the projected funding of the environmentally sensitive lands program through 2019. On the same ballot we will ask that the public be given alternatives to fund critical issues. Without detail study and presentation we don’t presume to place a priority or suggest that the ones we have mentioned are the only issues for funding that the public should consider. However, if we are going to place ourselves in additional long term debt, let the people of Sarasota County decide what our priority needs are in order to maintain our quality of life by giving us a choice. We have too many critical issues facing us to only consider more land purchases when the land holdings in public ownership in Sarasota County all ready total approximately 104,000 acres. Let us face the truly hard issues, and then let’s fund them. Vote “NO” on November 8, not against our environmentally sensitive lands, but against “no choices.”