The Florida of Tomorrow -- Citizens Will Control Growth

October 18, 2010

Joyce Tarnow
Cross City, FL

No pipe dream any longer. Citizens will be able to control growth in their communities if we can reach enough voters to tell them about their opportunity to pass Florida Hometown Democracy’s Amendment 4 on November 2nd. Without having the big-time funds needed for mass-media advertising, we’re counting on you folks in Sierra, civic associations, Audubon groups, garden clubs, and hunting and fishing clubs, among other supporting organizations. We might even be able to garner support from large ranch owners, since so many of them have already indicated their values by selling conservation rights on thousands of acres. (See last Fall’s issue of Nature Conservancy magazine for a marvelous spread on Florida’s cowboys and ranchers.)

Maybe you didn’t hear about Hometown Democracy seven years ago when the effort first kicked off. That was the spring of 2003. Since then a lot of dedicated people have worked very hard to gather over a million signatures of Florida-registered voters to put Amendment 4 on the ballot. Nearly $2 million dollars was raised to get the campaign this far, including a significant contribution from Florida Sierra. Over 140 environmental and civic organizations have endorsed Amendment 4.

Now, we need YOUR help and YOUR dollars, to beat back the very wealthy and politically powerful Growth Machine to make sure 60% of voters say “Yes” when they go to vote. The folks who overbuilt our state, with the help of compromised elected officials at all levels, crashed our economy. A number of large development corporations have received millions of taxpayer Stimulus dollars and then gifted opponents of Amendment 4 with hundreds of thousands of dollars. Having them continue in control of land-use changes will only insure the further destruction of our resources, the devaluing of our homes and the hit on our taxes. We deserve a vote before they hand us the bill for their extravagant profiteering.

YES on Amendment 4 www.floridahometowndemocracy.com