Conservation groups seek injunction to conservation money raid
Taxpayer’s land conservation money getting diverted for other uses
By Special to The Star
Posted Sep. 10, 2015 at 9:06 AM
Updated Sep 10, 2015 at 9:11 AM
TALLAHASSEE - Four Florida citizen groups are seeking an injunction to stop state officials from raiding the Water and Land Conservation Amendment’s dedicated trust fund and using the money to pay for other state functions.
“What we are trying to do is recover stolen property,” said Earthjustice Managing Attorney David Guest. “By a 75 percent vote for Constitutional Amendment 1 last November, Floridians clearly directed the state to use these tax dollars to buy conservation land. But now our leaders are acting as if they never heard about that.
The suit asks a Leon Circuit Court judge to order the Legislature to return monies back to the state’s Land Acquisition Trust Fund. Today’s action is an amendment to a June legal complaint filed in Leon County Circuit Court on behalf of the Florida Wildlife Federation, the St. Johns Riverkeeper, and the Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida. Today, one of the state’s largest citizen conservation groups, the Sierra Club, joins the suit.
Much more at http://www.starfl.com/article/20150910/NEWS/150919963
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