FHD NEW Petiton

Thank you for your support in the signings of the first Petition. We look forward to your continued efforts to assist FHD with growth control within the State of Florida. Please see the below enclosed information.

Publisher's Note: People For Good Government has had the below link on our web site for over a year. It has been well visited by the PFGG visitors interested in controlling the ruthless destruction of the image of the State of Florida by cities latching on to every means of raising tax revenues to support their developer friends.

Winter Springs Florida is a prime example of this misuse of taxes paid to the City by using that revenue (over 12 million dollars by Winter Springs) to buy land for private developers. This is even supported by the City Manager's own presentation at a meeting. There he describes, and outlines the very use of such revenue (12 million tax dollars) used to purchase land for private usage. It's called the "Towncenter". Then, of course one must remember the $33,000 for swamp land paid to the developers of the "Tuscawilla Office" complex. That came from another developer who paid the City for not having to build recreational areas in an annexed subdivision on SR434.

This now even includes support for the office building being built in Tuscawilla by their Rotary Club buddy on a private road bought by the City. That road probably isn't 100 yards in length and the tax payers will pay well over $500,000 for the developer favor by your city officials. It's at the corner of Winter Springs Blvd., and was formerly for 30 years known as Colt Drive. Moti and his THOA cronies were responsible for this blunder.

Here are some excerpts about our FHD initiative from a definitive new book on uncontrolled growth, Sprawl Kills by Joel S. Hirschorn. Visit his website and order the book at http://www.sprawlkills.com. REMEMBER to sign and send in your petitions, and get 10 others to do the same!

The sprawl industry has a long history of corrupting government in Florida. The Washington Post reported in 2002 that "Prosecutors showed that Collier County government in the 1990s was basically a developer-run criminal enterprise, with politicians enjoying free golf, envelopes stuffed with cash and even a free wedding reception while rubber-stamping developments and waiving fees." In early 2003 the Orlando Sentinel reported that three commissioners of Lake County, Florida "never met a subdivision they didn't like. They talk 'smart growth.' .Then they vote with developers - the same ones that pour thousands into their campaigns." ..... The Center for Public Integrity revealed that 25 Florida legislators had outside financial interests in real estate and that campaign contributions to state candidates in 1998 from the real estate sector totaled $2.5 million.....Only money explains why Florida politicians have not stopped the sprawl juggernaut.

One way to curb the power and influence of Florida's sprawl lobby is to transfer power from the governments it controls to citizens. There is considerable public discontent with gluttonous land consumption. A survey of Florida citizens by the state in 1999 found that only 8 percent thought the state was very effective in managing growth, 57 percent thought suburban quality of life had declined, and over 75 percent wanted more public involvement in planning and development decisions. Now, these Floridians must act.

Distrust in government caused Florida Hometown Democracy in 2003 to launch a petition drive for a constitutional amendment that would give local voters control over land use changes through referenda, instead of local and state politicians. Lesley Blackner, one of the group's founders, made the case: "We have government by the developer and for the developer. .too many of Florida's elected officials only define the 'public interest' as keeping the development industry happy." ......It is crystal clear that long ago developers and corrupt politicians pushed Florida off the 60th floor of sprawl-central. Florida keeps tumbling toward social, fiscal and environmental disaster in bright sunshine for all but the time-blind to see. As in too many other states, laws are passed as window dressing and the sprawl blitzkrieg continues.

Perhaps the grassroots Florida Hometown Democracy initiative will wake up Floridians before the sprawl hits the fan and all of Florida's unique natural beauty is lost. If not, most Floridians and visitors will be surrounded by sprawl instead of natural beauty and fighting brutal traffic to get to work, a beach or shopping, while sprawl developers enjoy their waterfront McMansions and yachts in the state they developed to death.