Partisan Assault On Conservation Districts Continue

County Soil and Water Conservation Districts have been around in Florida since World War II, but suddenly a Republican legislator wants to effectively kill them.

That would be Sen. Travis Hutson, a St. Augustine developer and agribusiness ally.

First he wanted to simply abolish them. Then, after that caused a lot of political pushback, he amended his legislation that allowed only millionaire farmers or someone like that could run for public office to serve on this boards.

There has been some pushback on that, too, since the idea that there should income requirements to run for public office may have some legal issues under, say, the U.S. Constitution.

What this is really all about, or course, even though the sponsor has been shy to admit this, is another attempt by Republicans to make sure there are no Democrats elected to anything.

That’s because in some counties the Soil and Water Conservation Board is a springboard for people to get involved in local government and some of them may be Democrats. The silly part of this legislation that there are also Republicans who would be collateral damage in this partisan effort.

Let’s hope the measure gets no farther or that Gov. Ron DeSantis wisely vetoes it.

Posted in Group Conservation Issues.