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Senate Bill 1118 encroaches on land conservation and voters’ will
March 28, 2012
Contact: Kelly Corsette, communications & public affairs director
480-312-2336
Note: this is an opinion editorial from Scottsdale Mayor W.J. "Jim" Lane and Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton published in the Arizona Republic on March 28, 2012
Update: on March 28, 2012, Senate Bill 1118 was defeated on the floor of the state House of Representatives by a vote of 18 yes - 40 no.
Senate Bill 1118 encroaches on land conservation and voters’ will
Land conservation is a priority for Arizona – the state’s voters affirmed that in 1998 when they passed Proposition 303. That piece of “Growing Smarter” legislation set aside a specific amount of money for land conservation, making it possible for those communities most impacted by growth to preserve portions of natural desert land that may otherwise be lost to development.
Senate Bill 1118 ignores the voters, shifting as much as $40 million the voters approved in Proposition 303 for a specific purpose to other priorities determined solely by a select group of state legislators.
You may remember that the legislature tried this sweep once before, in 2010. Thankfully, they went about it the right way by taking it to the voters. To no one’s surprise, their attempt to sweep these funds failed at the polls by a margin of 3 to 1.
Their latest attempt to circumvent the will of the voters has received two separate and independent legal reviews that both determined SB 1118 to be unconstitutional.
Local land conservation efforts involve widespread community support, long term goal setting, planning and financing that rely partly on the predictable revenue available through the state land conservation fund established by Proposition 303.
In Scottsdale alone, grants from the land conservation fund, paired with required matching funds from the city, have allowed the purchase of key pieces of state trust land to expand the McDowell Sonoran Preserve to more than 33 square miles. This land provides a unique Sonoran Desert experience that is enjoyed by more than 300,000 visitors each year from around the world.
Phoenix has acquired nearly 7,900 acres of land for the Phoenix Sonoran Preserves, utilizing voter-approved Growing Smarter funds to match the acquisition costs to acquire the land. More than 700,000 Phoenix residents make nearly 15 million visits a year to the city's desert preserves and enjoy hiking, mountain biking and outdoor recreation in beautiful and scenic areas right outside their doors.
Our desert environment is part of who we are as Arizonans. It's what brings tourism to our state and defines it as unique. We are blessed to live among these desert preserves and it's important to protect them to leave a legacy for our children and grandchildren.
By diverting the money from this fund to other uses, the efforts by local agencies to conserve land per the will of their local constituencies and Arizona’s voters as a whole will be severely hindered and may in some cases be cancelled altogether.
There is another negative impact. $173 million in land conservation grant funding tapped by local and county governments over the past decade has been leveraged into more than $373 million that helps, through interest earned, fund public education across the state. If this money is swept, additional contributions to that education fund will disappear as well.
Protecting our natural resources from the pressures of development is not an inexpensive undertaking, but time and time again, Arizonans have said that it should remain a priority.
Phoenix and Scottsdale appreciate the hard work state land director Maria Baier has done to continue to preserve these lands.
Now state lawmakers should do their part by preserving the funds established by the voters for this purpose and defeating SB 1118.
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