Conservation Collier Update
Lynn Martin | Published on 3/20/2024
Conservation Collier is an important County program meant to preserve and protect local lands in an ever changing landscape of development. The League has supported the program and worked with Collier citizens to help pass it in 2002 and again in 2020. That year the voters approved the tax by 77%.
There are rules. For example, the County can only purchase sensitive and environmentally important property from willing landowners. The money collected is transferred into two pots of money: one to purchase land and the other to maintain it. Great examples of the program include Baker Park and the Greenway. The money was only meant to be use for Conservation Collier projects.
The current Board of County Commissioners (BCC), during budget hearings in late 2023, did not want to raise taxes but it left a budget shortfall for the County. The hearing resulted in a decision to raid Conservation Collier funds that had been built up over the years to purchase land. That 4-1 decision left nearly empty coffers until next year, with no mention of replacing it. The League and many other groups strongly objected, and even suggested it might be illegal unless the funds were replaced.
At the next BCC meeting, the County Attorney proposed a retroactive amendment to the existing ordinance saying these funds may “be used for any other County purpose, if found to be in the best interest of the public by majority vote of the BCC”. It passed 4-1 making the raid legal.
The BCC received a great deal of public pushback for doing this to a well liked program. On March 12 of this year, the BCC held another hearing for the public to speak. They proposed new changes to the ordinance included language in four separate places allowing them to use Conservation Collier Trust funds “ if found to be in the best interest of the public by a majority of the Commissioners”. The same language as before. The League prepared testimony asking that the language be removed in all four places.
On a more positive note, there were some helpful changes making a more streamlined process to move proposed purchases more quickly through the system which we support.
61 citizens attended that March 12 hearing. Several members of our Environmental Affairs Committee were signed up to speak. Unfortunately the BCC dragged out the limited time with testimonials about how much they never intended to harm Conservation Collier, and then asked Audubon to speak first, no one else was able to testify before they decided on key language regarding use of the money. They removed three of the references to using money and added language to the remaining statement that funds taken from Conservation Collier must be returned.