Cities tax to keep land green

By MARTHA T. MOORE

Story ran in USA Today, May 31, 2001  

In growing numbers, voters are raising their local taxes to preserve open space in their own backyards.

The momentum to preserve open space is shirting from statewide initiatives to county and city referendums that devote money to buy land for recreation and environmental protection. 

Residents of Boise voted last week to hike property taxes for two years to raise $10 million to buy land in the Foothills, the rolling high desert outside the city.

Last month voters in McHenry County, Ill., near Chicago, and in DeKalb County, Ga., in the Atlanta area, passed bond referendums to buy open space. On Saturday, Hays County, Texas, near Austin, will vote on a similar $3.5 million bond issue.

And since March 31, Massachusetts towns have voted to raise property taxes as much as 3% to finance open space acquisition and other land issues. The state's cities will vote on similar tax hikes this fall.

State referendums for open space provide bigger pots of money. Last year, California voters approved #5 billion in acquisition funds. But open-space advocacy groups say the action is moving to counties and municipalities, because voters are most willing to pay to keep land green when it is in their own neighborhood. "These things have a better chance when they're more local," says Amy Kurtz of the Nature Conservancy.

In Florida, Volusia County voters cared enough about protecting environmentally sensitive land to pass a $40 million bond issue last November. "That's the Daytona Beach area, where our poll numbers also showed people valued driving on the beach," Kurtz says.

In a survey in March by the National Association of Realtors, 74% of those polled supported local government buying land for open space

Boise's property tax increase was supported by 59% of voters. Passing open-space referendums by large margins encourages other places to follow suit, says Will Rogers, president of The Trust for Public Land, a non-profit land-conservation group. "That's sending a very, very strong message to elected officials," he says. "No one's excited about being out in front on tax initiatives. You need to see that people care about it."