from tcpalm.com, Guest Column 
In 2009, the Florida legislature responded to the recession by raiding the Florida Forever Trust Fund. Lawmakers said they had to do it because they had based their financial planning on the assumption the housing bubble would go on forever. They were caught with their financial pants down when the bubble burst.
Florida Forever was the best conservation land acquisition program in the country. Former Gov. Reuben Askew started it in 1972 with the Environmentally Endangered Lands Program. It changed names over the years, but continued to have bipartisan support. From 1999 to 2009, we spent $300 million a year buying beautiful wilderness.
If you’ve used Florida’s state parks, you’ve appreciated the awe and wonder of what we acquired for ourselves and our grandchildren. If you’ve paid taxes in Florida, you’ve reaped dividends from buying lands that shouldn’t be developed and using it for recreation. If you believe strongly in private property rights, you can be proud that we have paid willing sellers fair market value so we can all benefit from what wet, wild places provide.
In Martin County, the Savannas, beach access, Seabranch, Atlantic Ridge, Halpatiokee, Allapattah and large parts of Palmar were purchased under Florida’s land buying programs. We went through the exercise a few years ago of seeing if we didn’t need any of it. The public reaction to selling off those public lands was a resounding “No!”
Try to imagine how sick the river would be if all those places had been drained and developed. The Legislature didn’t put money back in the trust fund when the economy improved. In Martin County, we are acutely aware that we do need to acquire more public land. If we don’t buy the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan lands that are needed to clean up our watershed, if we don’t buy land south of Lake Okeechobee, we lose our river and the world loses Everglades National Park.
All around Florida, folks realized that without public land acquisition we would lose our springs, rivers and beaches. Florida’s Water and Land Legacy amendment was created to put the Florida Forever Trust in our constitution so they couldn’t steal it again.
Seventy-five percent of Florida voters voted for Amendment 1. Legislative leaders opposed the amendment. The Florida Chamber of Commerce advertised: “VOTE NO!” They said it would force the government to take control of more land.
A Senate committee invited residents to tell them how to spend the more than $700 million that Amendment 1 required them to put back into the trust fund — and 1,800 people said “Buy land!” Only 26 people said “Don’t buy land!”
The Legislature paid no attention. They put $200 million into existing commitments — the old Lottery switcheroo. They put $10 million into “historic preservation.” I’m still trying to figure out how renovating the house where Ma Barker was shot protects our water and land legacy.
They put just $17 million into Florida Forever.
They got more than $700 million this year. When they were through, they had spent less on the environment than they did the year before.
Can they get away with it? Yes, if we let them.
The only certain remedy is to hold our elected representatives accountable. We are still a democracy. There are more of us than there are of them.
You don’t have to vote against every politician who served in this dysfunctional Legislature. You don’t have to threaten to leave them in an alligator-infested swamp if they don’t do right by the alligators. You do have to talk to them and see if they are salvageable.
Don’t listen to excuses. Ask what they are going to do to make it right next year. If they don’t know what’s right, find someone decent, honest and intelligent to run against them.
Maggy Hurchalla is a former Martin County commissioner and resident of Rocky Point.