Looking Back Over 7 Years

Via Florida Hometown Democracy:

We’d [like] to share this inspirational message from the Yes on 4 campaign manager, Mitch Kates, who wrote this early Tuesday morning before the voting was finished:

Team A-4…

So today is Election Day, otherwise known as the end of a looooong & historic journey in Florida politics.  So much has happened throughout these years with so many stories that many of you could tell and share.  I just wanted to take a moment to say that it was an honor working with everyone on this noble cause.  My only true regret is that I wasn’t a part of the team sooner so that there was more time to fight the good fight with you all.

Before the numbers come in and the results are read, here are a couple of quick thoughts/observations that come to mind to think about:

1.  Florida has been witnessing out-of-control growth for years and this fight to do something about it has gone on for well over 7 years to get to this day.

2.  In those 7+ years the biggest of the Special Interests that in many ways “run” this state have done everything possible to stop this movement, a movement that was started by a few citizens who couldn’t sit back and watch Florida continue down this dangerous path.  The fact that these Special Interest groups even had to change the Constitution (going from 50+1% to 60+1%) is proof that they would stop at nothing to stop this movement!

3.  Ultimately it will be hard to put a hard number on exactly how much was spent trying to stop A-4 and basically crush the voter’s right to decide their community’s future but early guestimates are approaching, and may well exceed, more than $20 Million.  The Supreme Court’s decision to give Corporations the same rights as individuals in regards to campaign spending, along with the loosening of reporting requirements are weighing heavy in this election cycle and definitely a factor in this race.

4.  Those most responsible for creating the over-growth of Florida and played a leading role in the crash of the Real Estate market pulled out all the stops to defeat us.  Funny how scared these big bad Special Interest groups got over the efforts of a relatively few individuals who had the courage to speak up  😉

5.  Can you say “whitewashed”???  Never before has there been such a concerted effort to stop a movement who sole goal was to save Florida from further collapse… Between the big Special Interest groups such as the Chamber, the Florida Realtors and those developers who helped get us to this dismal point in Florida history (is there any home owner in the state who hasn’t seen their property values dropped?) to the “mainstream media” and, of course, most of the state’s elected officials, this was only a portion of the opposition to A-4 — and all the money that goes with that type of opposition.  This of course leads to…

6.  Lies and the lying liars that told them!  Lies are an unfortunate aspect of campaigns as most are becoming aware but never before has one effort been so plagued by lies which in the end turned out to be the entire platform of the opposition.  I am hard pressed to find one single portion of the oppositions argument that wasn’t based on either distortions or complete fabrication of the truth.  All I can say is what a shame (I’m trying to be nice right now.)

I could go on and on but let’s save that for another time and place…

Today is the end of a long journey or the beginning of a new one for Florida.  You have all fought valiantly and I have been proud to stand and fight with you.  As I told John Hedrick & Lesley when I was first joining the team one of the few motto’s I live by is this… “Goonies never say Die!”

See you on the other side Team!

 

What “No on 4” Forgot to Say

Scotty Lee Rexroat

The opposition to amendment 4 has failed to mention several key facts about controlled growth by the people which Amendment 4 will provide if passed. They have to do with water resource sustainability, sink holes, current property values,increased taxes without valid representation, and quality of life here in Florida.

In a publication brilliantly put together by SWFMD titled “West-Central Florida’s Aquifers” They mention the expensive cost of treating the contaminated water now entering the aquifer. It gives great insight into how the magnificent sensitive Floridan Aquifer works, and is a very informative read for anyone who wants to search it out.

Included in its reading is an example of saltwater intrusion. In areas of the state along the St Johns district and south to Miami water management is replenishing the aquifer with injection wells using treated sewer excrement. It is an experimental approach with the hopes to prevent the kind of leaching described in SWFMD’s downloadable file from the overpumping of the natural wells. The method has been met with great opposition from people in rural areas who rely on their private wells, if there is such a thing, as a safe source of water, and rightly so.

Another example problem with the depleted supply incurring at our current population level, is the need for water restrictions in our agricultural industry. The unsustainable use of the current level of residents living here’s natural resource is wrecking havoc on another valuable part of our economy in lost jobs and affordable healthy food product. Consequently, the over pumping of the regional wells to keep these farms alive have created another problem in the form of sinkholes. Especially hard hit are the areas of Polk County where over pumping after the past winters hard freeze to save crops increased the ground cave in of properties throughout the region, but we shouldn’t stop here as the same tragedies are happening in Pasco and Hernando counties as well. Their fields have been relied on as a valuable source of water for the depleted supply in the Tampa Bay area.

One source I spoke with in regards to sinkholes in Pasco, is a single mother. She bought her house during the boom hyped real estate bubble and has paid for the added sinkhole insurance for the past 10 years. Her insurance company has denied her claim, and she is now in a lawsuit where the lawyer said it will take 4 years to settle. I will stop here with this example because the sinkhole problem and insurance industry could take on a whole other page, but just take note there is a reason why there are full size billboards all over rural Pasco county in regards to “Call Us For Sinkhole Repairs” and “We Buy Sinkhole Houses”, but don’t expect to get what the amendment 4 opposition sold it to you for. The funny thing is, development is running rampant there already, with golf course communities lined in waste water retention ponds to provide us with an inefficient direct funnel of contaminated aquifer recharge where wetlands need to be. I urge you to take a ride out there and see for yourself what is going on with our water supply. The indication here is how do we expect to water the new growth there when we can’t even water the current growth we have now safely and effectively. And it’s not funny it’s insane. Did someone in the opposition say Amendment 4 would lead to higher taxes. I don’t think so, but the cost of Desalinization, Reclaimed Sewage, and SWFMD well they might just need it.

I would like to continue now with a look at property values after the boom con. Many people bought houses for far more than their market value. Charlie Crist provided tax relief by doubling the homestead exemption in the Save Our Homes amendment, but many people are still in over there heads with a mortgage barley affordable, and in a depressed real estate market they can’t afford to take a loss on sale and risk foreclosure. Real managed growth in a region like amendment 4 proposes will increase the value of their homes to a fair market value so if they felt a need to get out from under a mortgage they can’t afford, they could sell with a minimal loss and maybe a profit. Furthermore, there are many homeowners who are going to need to rely on a reverse mortgage in their retirement to sustain them longer and equitably after they pay off their homes, especially after losses incurred to their 401k by the market crash. More growth will just not give them the increased property value they will need and it will cost us in guess what? Higher taxes.

Real leadership in our city and county commissions will lead the people into making the right decisions about growth in their communities if Amendment 4 passes. Don’t let fear be the motivator of your decision to vote for what is right for Florida. The Florida Supreme Court approved it why shouldn’t we. A vote of Yes on Amendment 4 will steer our state into a change for real sustainability and grow the jobs we need to lead us into the future.

Just cast a line and let your Florida Soul Shine,

Florida Association of Realtors fiddles while members burn

Via Florida Hometown Democracy

We turn now to one of the more obscene gestures made by the Florida business community during its desperate and all-encompassing fight against Hometown Democracy and the people’s right to vote on development issues that could cost them higher property taxes.

Consider this: At a time when many individual Realtors are suffering in a horribly overbuilt Florida housing market and downturned economy, their parent organization, the Florida Association of Realtors, has used its “Advocacy Fund” (fueled in part by a $10 per member advocacy surcharge on their annual dues) to contribute $4.25 million to oppose Amendment 4.

This makes the Realtors association’s Advocacy Fund the largest single contributor to the anti-Amendment 4 campaign at a time when things are so bad for Florida Realtors that they even got a $16 million settlement from the BP Gulf oil spill. (And Realtors looking to be fully compensated from that settlement shouldn’t hold their breath. Realtors association lobbyist John Sebree said in reports published Aug. 24, 2010, that the BP money “might not go terribly far.”)

At a time when the Realtors association should be financially helping its members, it is wasting more than $4 million to attempt to preserve the very system of growth that put its members out of work in the first place! The very system that depressed housing values (and therefore commissions when/if homes are sold in this market).

And the $4.25 million from the Realtors’ Advocacy Fund isn’t all the Realtor money that has found its way to oppose Florida Hometown Democracy. State Division of Elections records show that the Florida Realtors Association gave another $25,910; the Realtors Political Issues Committee-FLA gave $5,500; and the Florida Gulfcoast Comm. Association of Realtors PAC gave $250.

Just how over the top is the Florida Association of Realtors in its largesse to the No on 4 crowd? Consider that the next biggest contribution given to the No on 4 political action committee is $567,000 from Pulte Homes Corp. (Pulte got is own bail-out, by the way, an $800 million tax break from the federal government, according to Builder magazine in Feb. 2010, tucked neatly in a 2009 unemployment compensation bill.)

Yes on 4’s website address is www.floridahometowndemocracy.com.

Conservationist Nathaniel Reed Endorses 4

Via Hometown Democracy:

Nathaniel P. Reed — long one of Florida’s most respected conservationists and a former Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish, Wildlife and Parks in the Nixon and Ford administrations — has endorsed Amendment 4, the Hometown Democracy land-use voting rights ballot initiative.

Reed is well known for his work in 1000 Friends of Florida and as vice chairman of the Everglades Foundation and deeply respected for his thoughtful and reasoned approach to conservation in Florida. He has served seven governors, most recently as chairman of the Commission on Florida’s Environmental Future.

Here is Reed’s statement:

I have pondered the pros and cons of Amendment #4 for months. I have listened to expert land use planners and attorneys who warn that the amendment is not perfect and might have “unanticipated consequences”.  I have listened to the proponents who are dissatisfied with the obvious consequences of the existing system.  They have been repeatedly ignored by their elected officials who promised careful consideration of development plans and then allowed projects that are unsound and will cost the existing taxpayers a fortune.

As I have traveled the state I have seen the cost of bad development decisions by local government who have made Florida the foreclosure capital of the nation.  I am struck by the continued efforts by the development community to convince county and city officials that they can restore Florida’s economy by doing more of what made it crash.

The suggestion that Amendment 4 will cost the taxpayer’s money is laughable when you look at the untold millions the current system has cost us.  Overbuilding has left Florida’s economy in shambles.  It is the major reason that property taxes have skyrocketed.  It is the single biggest factor in uncounted environmental damage to Florida’s natural systems.  Every study ever done shows that bad growth management costs citizens in money and quality of life.

I have been involved in the state’s once meaningful comprehensive planning program for 30 years, beginning with then Governor Bob Graham’s efforts to produce a new vision on how Florida could grow and prosper with due regard to livability and protection of unique areas that make our state uniquely beautiful.

During the intervening years the mad, insatiable desire of the development community has overwhelmed local concerns and produced a Florida that is uglier than it ever should have become.  We have lost the promise of thoughtful development that create livable communities and substituted “pay for play” as the standard for development approval.

There are faults with Amendment #4, but with the evisceration of the Department of Community Affairs that once was the hallmark of sound decision making, I am at the stage where I believe that we need to take a chance.  We need to send a message to our elected officials that communities have a right to control their destiny.

My vote for Amendment 4 represents my discontent if not disgust with the return to an era of uncaring, anything goes development without caring for local input or the impact on our remaining undeveloped land.

Nathaniel Reed

 

Nothing in Amendment 4 Requires an Election

Via Dori Sutter

The basic point is that nothing in Amendment 4 requires a special election.  Local governments, if they do not want to waste taxpayer dollars, will hold their adopted Comprehensive Plan amendments until the next scheduled election.  If a developer does not want to wait then it can pay for a special election.

However, A key strategy by the opposition is to quote from the 2005 Supreme Court opinion that rejected an earlier form of the HD amendment.  That opinion said the wording was too vague and would require a referendum on all comp plan changes.  The court required FHD to revise the wording, which it did.  In 2006 the Supreme Court accepted the wording with an opinion that said only land-use changes would require referenda.

Repeatedly we have seen and heard the opposition quote the 2005 opinion.  The Miami Herald yesterday even included a summary of the 2005 opinion to justify the opposition’s claim in yesterday’s edition (most likely furnished by the opposition, The Chamber of Commerce).

Your local officials still play a key role in the implementation of Amendment 4 and scheduling referenda, if any.  DCA Pelham has already stated that if Amendment 4 passes, he will work with local authorities in the timing of any technical or text adjustments to local growth plans.  The same should apply to local officials in order to keep within budgets. (more on actual ‘numbers’ of historical comp plan changes to follow and much less than has been quoted by the opposition).

Very significantly, the Florida Supreme Court has ruled that it would be misleading to conclude that local governments will hold expensive special elections on Comprehensive Plan amendments under Amendment 4.  The Court did that in striking down an earlier financial impact statement proposed by the state that provided that Amendment 4 would cost “millions” to local governments statewide, in part for special elections.  The Court cited the proposed economic impact statement and before rejecting it as “misleading”, stated, “This statement, however, assumes that numerous local governments will have out-of-cycle changes to their respective comprehensive land use plans, necessitating special elections.”

The state later came back with an economic impact statement the Court approved and is on the ballot, which states that any costs to local governments under Amendment 4 cannot be determined.

Don’t be snookered into the misinformation being pushed in any of the political ads in the media.  The Chamber of Commerce has deep pocket big business money and they will say and do anything not to lose their power over land use.  Just take a look at the number of Legislators and local officials who are in the development or related business and ‘who’s money put them there’.

Take ‘self interest’ away from local & state elected officials and replace it with citizens’ ‘common sense’ with a Yes on 4.

Message about Amendment 4 poll coming today

Message TangerineFlorida.com got today:

You may become aware today or tomorrow of a new Mason-Dixon poll that shows a drop in support for Amendment 4. I think it is important that you understand that we are discounting this poll’s findings and why.

 

The pollster acknowledges adding (for the first time to its A4 question) language about the financial impact of our Amendment. It is language that echoes, the pollster admits, the advertising that “No on 4” is doing. The pollster writes in the poll:

“Due to the fact that opponents are making that their primary issue, the fiscal statement was added to the poll question.

“It is hard to discern if voters will actually read beyond the summary in the voting booth and even get to the fiscal note… . The outcome here will come down to fear of taxpayer cost vs. voter desire to handcuff politicians and government bureaucrats.”

 

In essence, this poll becomes a “push” question using the negative language from our opponents. We believe this invalidates the poll’s results as they relate to Amendment 4.

 

The Yes on 4 campaign has already issued this statement to the press in advance of reporting on the poll:

It is unfortunate that Mason-Dixon admits to changing the wording of the poll question regarding Amendment 4 from previous pollings, making it impossible to compare this poll result to previous results and weighting the poll against Amendment 4. The pollster acknowledges adding language that mirrors language being used by opponents to Amendment 4, and we do not see how this can produce a fair result.

The bottom line is we have lots of work to do to keep spreading the word about the benefits of Amendment 4 and should not be distracted by any polling at all, let alone those polls that are weighted against us.

 

Wayne Garcia

Communications Director

Amendment 4 enters homestretch

Elected officials across Southwest Florida are fighting to preserve control of local land-use decisions, telling voters Amendment 4 would be financially devastating as the campaign over the controversial state referendum enters its final few weeks.

The state’s local governments say a citizens reform measure commonly referred to as “Hometown Democracy” would doom the economy by stalling new development and setting back job growth. Supporters of the measure argue that officials have made poor land-use decisions over the past decade, and that giving voters more control is essential to prevent future overdevel-opment.

Either way, the sides agree the Nov. 2 vote could historically change the blueprint for local government operations in Florida.

Amendment 4 is a proposed state law that would require local governments to hold a referendum on any changes to that area’s comprehensive plan. That means instead of leaving land-use matters for elected officials to debate at public meetings, every adjustment to the comprehensive plan would go before voters. Each of the proposed changes, which often carry 100 pages in support documents, would be condensed into a 75-word ballot summary.

Officials fear the referendum would put a halt to economic recovery by spurring further job losses in the construction industry, adding another expense to governments already fighting to stay afloat and giving relocating employers who were weighing the option of moving to Florida an incentive to go elsewhere.

“Local governments have tried very hard to represent their constituents,” said Cragin Mosteller, spokeswoman for the Florida Association of Counties. “At the end of the day, Amendment 4 will have a halting effect on how residents shape their community.”

Amendment 4 was crafted nearly seven years ago by Hometown Democracy — a grassroots citizens group that opposes urban sprawl.

 

Can we trust our leaders to do the right thing?

A new land use map the St. Petersburg City Council will vote on today is a slick trick by the city aimed at blunting the potential impact of Amendment 4, the so-called “Hometown Democracy” amendment on November’s ballot. Critics call the map bogus and state regulators doubt it’s legal. But most importantly, council members risk violating voters’ trust and rights if they approve the map today.
A new land use map the St. Petersburg City Council will vote on today is a slick trick by the city aimed at blunting the potential impact of Amendment 4, the so-called “Hometown Democracy” amendment on November’s ballot. Critics call the map bogus and state regulators doubt it’s legal. But most importantly, council members risk violating voters’ trust and rights if they approve the map today.
Amendment 4, if approved Nov. 2, would give local voters the right to veto proposed changes to their local comprehensive plan – the detailed document required under state law that guides growth and dovetails with a land use map.

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