Monday, December 19, 2005
This is your land
Tucson Citizen
A proposal to reform Arizona state trust lands - Conserving Arizona's Future - is gaining steam and petition signatures. If placed on the Nov. 7, 2006, ballot, it would:
• Save 690,000 acres of natural areas surrounding Arizona's state and national parks, monuments and preserves.
• Require communities to cooperate in planning of state trust lands and empower local authorities with control of development.
• Guarantee essential classroom funding for schools in Arizona.
More than 9.2 million acres are held in trust by the state, with revenues from land sales and leases used to build schools and prisons.
Current constitutional provisions call for the land to go to the highest bidder - often deterring cities and towns from buying land for preservation or other worthy causes.
The Legislature has wrangled with several reform proposals in recent years, but lawmakers failed to reach any consensus on the complex, multi-faceted issue.
Now the new ballot issue - supported by The Nature Conservancy, Arizona Education Association and the Sonoran Institute, among other groups - will attempt to garner citizen support for changes.
To find out more, visit www.conservingarizonasfuture.com.
