At one time Florida was better known for it's land swindles than it's beaches and people are still trying to get rid of swampland or wetlands in the middle of nowhere that will never be the road to riches they imagined when someone called them or they responded to an attractive ad in a newspaper. There is an answer for some, however, and it's encompassed in Florida's land conservation program, Florida Forever.
Florida's tradition of protecting it's rich natural history began back in the 60's with a progam called the Environmentally Endangered Lands program and has been going strong ever since. 
Up until the early 80's, the Legislature used to provide cash each year according to the chart to the right (yea! I finally got a chart in a blog!!!!) Then they got smart and realized that so many people were moving to Florida and buying property that they could start selling bonds to pay for the land buying programs and the growth in the Documentary Stamp Tax Revenues would pay the debt service on the bonds! That was the birth of today's more aggressive land buying program, Florida Forever, preceeded by Preservation 2000 created in 1990. At that time Governor Bob Martinez, Florida's first Republican Governor since Reconstruction formed a special committee to make recommendations on what should be done about Florida's rampaging growth, and out of that committee came a recommendation for a 10-year, $3 billion program to buy environmentally endangered lands that were under eminent threat of development. They thought $3 billion would buy 2 million acres. Nope. Only bought a little over half that amount:
Preservation 2000 1990-1998
1,020,710 acres purchased for conservation
at a cost of: $1,765,697,921
We are very committed to preserving our quality of life in Florida.... and with J, Bush at the helm, here are his results:
J.Bush Years-End of P2000 + Florida Forever 1999-2006
1,288,990 acres purchased for conservation
at a cost of: $3,260,946.421
The higher prices are partly as the result of the 2-3 year real estate boom, but otherwise, clearly demonstrating this state's commitment to protecting it's resources.
There are 2 more years of funding yet to be appropriated under Florida Forever, and the Legislative leaders are already talking about the followup program to this one. The project list is over 90 in length, with an emphasis on completion even though more have been completed in recent months, leaving much to be finished.
The "unfinished business" is for the next article... stay tuned...
P.S. --- yes - I do have an answer for where your clients can go to sell their property! It will take more than one blog to get there so hang in there!
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