Legislature sweeps Florida Forever funding to rural conservation program

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Legislature has gone from budgeting $229 million to the Florida Forever program two years ago to putting no new money into it next year, something that has rarely happened in the 25-year history of the state’s premier land conservation initiative.

Instead of buying land for the public to enjoy, the Legislature swept $425 million into a program to buy the development rights on private working farms and ranches — which can protect those agricultural lands from housing or commercial development but won’t preserve them for public use.

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