Florida’s beaches host 90% of all sea turtle nesting in the United States, with more than 100,000 nests laid each year. Florida’s seagrass beds, coral reefs, bays and lagoons, and offshore habitat support sea turtles from across the Caribbean and Atlantic. At the same time, the State hosts 23 million residents and welcomed more than 143 million visitors last year. The management decisions made in Florida play an important role in global sea turtle recovery.
While state and federal government play a role in protecting Florida’s sea turtles, a number of protection laws are enacted and enforced by local governments. Regulations on single-use items, like plastic and foam, can reduce the amount of trash on Florida’s beaches and waterways. Limitations on fertilizer use during the rainy season help keep seagrass beds healthy. Restrictions on hard shoreline armoring protect our natural beaches and prevent additional erosion. Smart growth management planning eases the development pressure off of fragile barrier island communities. And more than 100 local lighting ordinances across the State aim to prevent problematic lighting from disorienting adult and hatchling sea turtles, which can lead to their death.
In order to be effective, all of these important regulations need staff and funding to be enforced. However, Amendment 3, a proposed constitutional amendment that Floridians will vote on this November, would either completely eliminate or drastically cut this funding for natural resource management in every local community in Florida.
The tax reform amendment, titled “Save Our Homes from Excessive Property Taxes,” aims to raise the homestead property tax exemption from $50,000 to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028. After that, the Legislature would be required to increase the exemption or phase out the rest on a schedule that it will set in the future. Property taxes provide funding for roads, bridges, critical infrastructure, public safety, schools, parks, social services, and environmental programs. Each of these services are used by local communities on a daily basis. If this amendment passes, in the first year alone, counties in Florida are estimated to lose nearly $3 billion in revenue and more than $5 billion in year two. To make up for this loss in revenue, counties will need to cut services, and natural resource management and planning will likely be the first on the chopping block.
When local communities cannot carry out their duties effectively, sea turtles could suffer. Coastal lighting could go unmitigated, leading thousands of sea turtles toward problematic lights and into harm’s way. Our waterways could suffer from toxic algae blooms; our environmental education centers could be shuttered; our beaches could be filled with concrete and improper development. With no resources to enforce existing laws and expand natural resource management, Florida’s coastal communities, and the wildlife that depend upon them, could suffer.
Florida’s tourism economy thrives when habitat and wildlife are protected. This November, we urge Floridians to join us in opposing Amendment 3.
