WASHINGTON, DC, November 2, 2004 (ENS) – At the polls today, voters in over 140 communities in 24 states will decide ballot measures to create nearly $25 billion in new public funding, including $4.3 billion specifically to protect land for parks and open space, according to the Trust for Public Land (TPL).
It can be difficult to keep track of all the ballot measures across the country that will be decided today, but with its new database, Trust of Public Land will monitor and release results as soon as they are available on Wednesday, November 3.
Among the presidential battleground states lands measures are Michigan where 16 local measures worth over $100 million are at stake including $35 million in Washtenaw County. In Florida, 12 local measures worth over $2 billion are at stake, including three Miami-Dade County questions totaling over $1.4 billion. In New Jersey, 44 local measures totaling $355 million will be decided tomorrow, including $105 million for Hunterdon County.
Since 1998, 824 conservation ballot measures have passed in 44 states, raising $22 billion in funding for land conservation – a rate of passage of approximately 77 percent. In 2000, the last presidential election year, 174 ballot measures passed, an 83 percent passage rate, creating $7.5 billion in funding for land conservation.
"In recent years, voters across the political spectrum have voiced strong support for protection of natural lands, clean water, and safe communities," said Ernest Cook, Trust for Public Land's director of Conservation Finance. "This is a reaction to the continuing problems of sprawl that threaten the quality of life in so many areas."
A complete list of results from local and state balloting on conservation and parks will be available online at www.landvote.org.
The results of today's votes, along with results of all 2004 conservation measures, will be published as a report in early 2005. Results and ballot specifics from past and current ballot measures since are available on the LandVote database also available at www.landvote.org. Introduced in June, the database includes information on all conservation related ballot measures since 1999.
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2004. All Rights Reserved.
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