A Super Tuesday for Conservation Measures
Conservation funding measures had a good day on Super Tuesday, with the passage of ballot measures in Florida, Georgia, and Ohio to fund the acquisition of open space and parks. So far, 2012 has been a winning year, with the approval of all four measures up for a vote. The successful measures on March 6 included a bond measure to expand a lakeside park in the central Florida city of Tavares. The vote authorizes $2.4 million for the city to acquire a property that had been zoned for luxury housing and a marina. Despite a weak economy, voters in Granville, Ohio, renewed their local open space property tax with 57 percent support, continuing funding to protect farmland and open space. And in Houston County, Georgia, voters overwhelmingly approved a sales tax that included $7 million for land acquisitions around Warner Robins Air Force Base. In January, a bond measure approved in Granby, Connecticut, included $3 million for the purchase of a 124-acre farm. Next up for a vote, in early April: renewal of an open space levy in Erie, Colorado, and ballot questions in two Massachusetts towns to adopt the Community Preservation Act.
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