Agenda - 02-13-2001-3b - Laserfiche WebLink

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"In a county as diverse as. Santa anta Fe County has one of the most diverse populations iri the • Fe, such overwhelming support ~J Southwest: Domiriatin the northern art of the coon are lon g p ry g for a land conservation measure established Hispanic families in traditional agricultural communities is,a real accomplishment. With ' alongside.NativeArnericans in sovereign pueblos.•The economically TPL s help; we were able to design . a measure that all our communi- and ethnically diverse city of Santa Fe, in,the central-part of the ties could support and promote." county, is home to a booming arts- and'recreation-based tiourism in- Javier Gonzales, dustry, while in the sough, irrigated farms .and ranches are gibing way - Chaitinan,CountyComtnissiori • to suburban sprawl spilling over from.fast-growing Albuquerque. Santa Fe County, New Mexico . Concemhas been growing about the loss of open space throughout the county, despite • _ its substantial tracts of federal land. That cor-cern led County commissioner Javier - Gonzales to.ask the Trust for Public Land to assess the level of support for an open • space funding program. New Mexico's counties were granted the authority to bond for • ~ open space in 1996, when state voters narrowly passed a constitutional amendment. l~ 1998, Santa Fe County became the~first county to exercise this new authority, passing • ~ . a $12 million bond with 74 percent of the vote. Heze's how TPL helped. . • • Feasibility analysis The first step was research into the counry's fiscal condition the options.for dedicating taxes br bonds to a land conservation program, legal require- ' ~ menu for each option, an analysis of past election results foe all recent fiscal measures, • ~ and other factors that determine the {easibility of a new program for financing land conservation. This research pointed strongly to one choice: a general~obligation bond • Polling- TPL next conducted a public opinion poll to gauge voter preferences anc •~ willingness to pay. While the overall results of the poll were encouraging, one compo- • ~ neat stood out: there was' remarkably strong support for a program to protect historic • and cultural sites 'related to the 400 years of Hispanic settlement and the thousands of • years of Native American settlement in the Gouty. • ~ (continued. T H E TRUST F O R ~ • PUBLIC LAND National Offiee 116 New Montgomery Street, 4th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105, 1-800-714-LAND; www.tpl.org Public Finance Program 33 iJninr, ~rrwat tlrh fil.,.,r Ftncrn„ i`,ra n~inQ r~y~~ ~~~_~~nn .