The Polk County Commission is scheduled on Tuesday to consider a request by a local group called Polk Forever to place a referendum on the Nov. 8 ballot to ask voters to approve a tax to restart funding of the Polk County Environmental Lands land-acquisition program.
The vote will come following a public hearing at the meeting, which will begin at 9 a.m in the commission board room in Bartow. Supporters will be wearing green shirts to show their support.
If commissioners approve the measure, the campaign to begin informing voters about the measure will begin in earnest.
The proposal involves a request to levy a property tax of 20 cents per $1,000 of taxable property for 20 years to either buy environmentally important land or to buy conservation easements, which means the land would remain as private property but future development would be limited.
All of the purchases would involve willing sellers.
This would be the second referendum to seek voter approval for this purpose. Polk voters approved a similar referendum in 1994, which led to the purchase of 19,000 acres of land ranging from the Green Swamp to the headwaters of the Everglades. However, commissioners decided in 2015 to end the use of the voter-approved tax to fund environmental lands and diverted the revenue to other purposes.
Polk Forever, a local grassroots organization, is arguing it is now time to finish the job the first referendum started while the land is still available.
It is focusing on expanding conservation lands in the Green Swamp Area of Critical State Concern, the Lake Wales Ridge and other upland ridges throughout Polk County, the Peace River Basin and the Upper Kissimmee River Basin.
The organization has also formed a political committee to seek donations for the campaign.
For more information, go to polkforever.com