The October 24 Rivers Coalition meeting featured a presentation by Merritt Matheson on the “Martin County Forever Conservation Initiative”. This is the half-cent sales tax increase referendum on the ballot to raise money to acquire and preserve environmentally-important land. Merritt, a former mayor of Stuart, co-chairs the two-year effort.

A) It is a referendum. This means future County Commissions can’t change it. The only way it can be changed is via another referendum. 

B) Acquisitions are specifically limited to four areas: 1) Blue Water (small parcels of land adjacent to water bodies), 2) The Indian River Lagoon Watershed (mainly land in the area of the St. Lucie Canal), 3) Loxa-Lucie (the headwaters of the Loxahatchee and St. Lucie Rivers) and 4) Pal-Mar. 

C) Proceeds can also be used to buy conservation easements permanently limiting land uses to protect its conservation value. Importantly, all easements will be in perpetuity and irrevocable.

The half-cent sales tax is expected to generate $18 million/year during its ten-year lifespan. This means $140 million in bonds could be issued immediately upon voter approval and land acquisitions could begin early next year. Significantly, acquisitions of this nature are typically made using matching funds, so Martin County’s $140 million would end up being leveraged to several times that. The acquisition process, though, must be initiated by a local government, which makes the Martin County sales-tax referendum the keystone of the process. 

The Martin County Forever team is well aware that the last such initiative in 2006 led to some serious problems. Per the referendum, proceeds from that half-cent sales tax were to be split 50/50 between purchasing conservation lands and creating improved parks. The sales pitch, though, emphasized “purchasing conservation lands”, and the “creating improved parks” part, although hiding in plain sight, was glossed over. The result: Sailfish Splash. Matheson emphasized that the Martin County Forever team has included some very strong safeguards in the initiative to avoid any possible future hanky-panky with the proceeds from this initiative. The proceeds can be used to buy land -- and nothing else. 

More information is available on Martin County Forever’s website: https://www.martincountyforever.com/

The Martin County League has not taken a position on this referendum but is a member of the Rivers Coalition, which supports it. 

Meanwhile, some friends at Sandhill Cove recently took a tour of U. S. Sugar’s operations. U. S. Sugar made a really slick presentation which insists they are doing nothing whatsoever to harm anything or anybody. I asked Mark Perry what the biggest thing was that they left out. “Overdraining”; they’re discharging water into canals which drain into water treatment areas, which keeps water from Lake Okeechobee from flowing south. There are others; suffice it to say that a sugar-sponsored tour (which I thought was fascinating when I took it) is a commercial, not a documentary.

-- Walter Deemer, Martin County League of Women Voters