EXPLORER NEWS:  Weds., Jan. 17, 2007

Land reform needs its own reform

Advocates vow to try again

Brian Nanos

 

            Almost all of the stakeholders — conservationists, educators, developers, builders, representatives of Pima County, planners in both Marana and Oro Valley — agree that the laws governing state trust land are out of date and need to be reformed.   
            The state’s fast growth is putting at risk acres of environmental lands, but the cumbersome laws governing state trust land are standing in the way of that land’s conservation.  Everyone agrees, that is, except for the one group whose agreement is perhaps needed most: the Arizona voters.   Because the laws governing use and sale of state trust land are written into the state constitution, the voters ultimately have final say of how, or if, those laws will change.
            For most, explained Carolyn Campbell, Director of the Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection, “I guess the easiest way to say it is, ‘back to the drawing board.”  Campbell and other members of the conservation community are in the early stages of considering another ballot proposition for the 2008 election.
            Campbell warns against adding more land to a future ballot initiative. Every extra acre of land that is conserved, she pointed out, is an acre that won’t be sold for the benefit of the state’s schools. The teacher’s unions, key supporters of Proposition 106, are likely to fight any proposition that protects too much land.
            “You never want to have environmentalist versus teachers and kids,” she said.  “Environmentalists will lose.”
FULL STORY:  http://www.explorernews.com/article/show/558