WATER and LAND, TURMOIL OVER AMENDMENT 1

The one act required of Legislature by the Florida Constitution during a session is passing a balanced budget.  Partly because of the conflicting ideas of the meaning of Amendment 1 passed in the election of November 2014, no budget was passed in the regular session of the Legislature this year and it will reconvene in June at substantial cost to tax payers.  The Governor, House and Senate, all had different views of the meaning of the Amendment and how it should be fulfilled.

Amendment 1 provides for 1/3 of the documentary tax fees be spent for water and land conservation for the next 20 years, roughly beginning at $700,000,000 per year. Some officials want to buy land, others lease land, buy conservation easements, clean up the water, protect springs, hire people to make inspections, etc.  In the June session of the Legislature, many proposals will be considered. 

If you are concerned with how one per cent of your state tax money is spent, please advise your Representative and Senator of your wishes.  Later, check to find what he (she) did do and let them know you did.

Worrisome to me is the probability that some of that huge sum of money will be siphoned off into pockets of well connected politicos.  They will invest much time and money to divert assets to their pet projects, such as buying land that is owned by an insider, but is not a good fit for conservation, or paying much more than it is worth. 

Some years ago, as a broker, my listing of 8,000 acres on the St. Johns River was rejected for conservation because it was not needed.  About six months later, a similar nearby 6,500 acre parcel was bought for almost twice as much per acre. 

I wonder how much of the state should be owned by governments.  None of that land pays taxes and each additional acre means those acres that are taxed have to pay more.  Federal entities own more than 10% of Florida and my guess is that state and local governments own more than 10%.  Assuming the $14 billion paid out over the 20 years is spent buying timber and ranch land at a current average price of about $3,000 per acre, 4,600,000 acres will be taken off the tax roll, roughly 12% of the 37.5 million acres in the state.

Contact me, Henry Rogers, CCIM, ALC, with Coldwell Banker Commercial Benchmark at hrogers@cbcbenchmark.com to discuss.