The World Around You

When are public bodies going to figure out that they don’t have a choice about whether or not to disclose information? I’ve actually been told that there is nothing to the case in question and that is why they don’t want to release the woman’s name, but they CANNOT DO THAT. The school board MUST release the names, they don’t have a choice in the matter.

This article this morning does a much better job explaining the intricacies of what is going on with the Forever Wild fund than the one that run a couple of days ago. Do we really need another constitutional amendment to take money away from a program that will phase out on its own in several years anyway? As the backers state, Forever Wild received 84 percent of the vote when it was established in 1992, it has done exactly what it is designed to do. I know legislators are looking under every rock they can find to locate funding, but just because they don’t have the guts to try and raise taxes right now doesn’t mean we need to remove funding from a program that meets a specific need. Especially if it takes a constitutional amendment to do it.

UPDATE: A big thank you to Senator Bradley Byrne (R-Montrose) for pledging to fight this effort. Here is a perfect example of where I strongly support the Republicans.

This article explains an added element of this debate, right now the money gets matched, so every dollar brings in another two to three dollars from the federal government.

He stressed that when acquiring new land, the Department of Conservation had been able to use the Forever Wild money to secure federal contributions three or four times larger than the state’s share, greatly increasing the amount of land the state could buy.

He said that removing $5 million a year from the program, as proposed, would mean $20 to $30 million less per year available for buying new public lands in Alabama each year.

“What people don’t understand is that we are able to take the money and increase it fourfold. We don’t spend anything unless we can get at least a two-to-one match on our money, and usually its a four-to-one match from the government,” said Barnett Lawley, director of the Department of Conservation, which oversees Forever Wild acquisitions. “That’s a heck of a lot of bang for our bucks. And this is all great public hunting and fishing land. It’s pristine and it’s permanently protected for the public.”

The lands purchased through the program are opened to the public as state parks, nature preserves, recreation areas or wildlife management areas. Portions of Blakely State Park, the Mobile-Tensaw Delta, the Sipsey River, Weeks Bay, the Walls of Jericho and Grand Bay Savanna were acquired and protected thanks to the targeted funds.

This is clearly another place where we need to identify the problem and address it. I know there are ongoing efforts to address dropout prevention, there will be a conference in Montgomery March 16-18 on the subject, but there is no excuse for the sharp decline over the last 11 years that is indicated in this report.