Martin County Defender: No. 65

The Martin County

Defender

The e-newsletter for aware citizens – No. 65

Who owns Martin County’s land?

Defender DOES SOME NUMBER CRUNCHING

Martin County encompasses 355,705 acres of land and 126,215 acres of water. There are 87 owners of large tracts of land, those over 500 acres. 78 of them are private individuals or corporations according to the records of the Tax Assessor. 9 are government bodies or quasi-public institutions. It may be recalled that 500 acres was the minimum size to qualify for the benefits of clustering under the Valliere Rural Cluster Amendment to the Comp Plan.

The top 16 owners, accounting for 168,904 acres, include:

South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) - 55,374 acres

State of Florida - 27,115 acres

Carlos Garcia-Velez - 12,611 acres

Florida Power & Light - 11,800 acres

Tesoro Groves Ltd Partnership - 11,448 acres

Bull Hammock Ranch Ltd - 6,727 acres

Martin County - 6,394 acres

St. Lucie River Co. Ltd - 5,835 acres

Charles M. Armstrong - 5,738 acres

Groves 14 LLC - 4,170 acres

St. Lucie Partners LLC - 3,899 acres

Turtle Beach Ltd - 3,697 acres

Shadow Lake Groves, Inc - 3,635 acres

Caulkins Citrus Co. Ltd - 3,587 acres

Camayen Cattle Co. - 3,551 acres

Becker Holding Corp. - 3,323 acres

Excluding the three government bodies (SFWMD, state and county), the top 13 private landowners account for 80,021 acres, or 22.5%% of the county’s land. The balance of other private 500-acre-plus ownership totals 77,960 acres. Thus the grand total of private 500-plus ownership is 157,981 acres, or 44.4% of Martin’s total land area - almost all of it a prospect for sprawling cluster housing unless the Valliere amendment is rescinded.

Do Chamber members support scuzzy flier?

The widely reported distribution of a fear-mongering political flier by Jensen Beach Chamber of Commerce Exec Director Ron Rose may end up as a complaint filed with the Florida Election Commission. Rose has refused to name the source of the fliers. The handbill’s intent was clearly to scare people into voting against specifically named commission candidates. In bush-league style, it told voters “to be very afraid” of these candidates and their supporters. This is very different from just disagreeing on policy.

The flier was anonymous, probably a violation of election law that requires a disclaimer notification. It will be of legal interest if any Chamber resources were used (including man-hours for an exec expected to attend such events), the quantity printed, and the paid distribution by one or more persons hired for this purpose.

Chamber members should ask themselves two questions:

Would you personally have distributed such a flier?

The flier has had the backlash effect of provoking anti-business sentiment at a time when the economic downturn needs stronger public support for local business. Therefore -

Do you think it was appropriate for Mr. Rose to distribute that flier?

The integrity of the business community may rest on how Chamber members answer … and what they do about it.

ATTENTION VOTERS

When you see those costly ads

and mailings by commission

candidate Doug Smith, remember:

YOU ARE LOOKING AT

DEVELOPER-CONNECTED MONEY

A hilarious spoof of wasted tax money

In case you missed the jovial column by St. Pete Times writer Howard Troxler in the Stuart News, here are the highlights of his skewering the idea that it’s wise to spend tens of millions of dollars of tax money as incentive to get (maybe) a hundred jobs from new businesses. Troxler proposes a business that would do the following with the multi-million corporate welfare giveaway:

* For $30 million, he guarantees to create 100 new jobs paying $100,000/yr.

* The jobs will last at least three years.

* All jobs will be filled by the local work force.

* All purchasing will occur here.

* Every dollar spent will have a multiplier effect.

His “incentive” proposal is to hire 100 people to sit around and drink beer!

It’s a better deal for taxpayers than what we’ve seen in some counties. The government does not have to build roads or any other infrastructure. It does not have to create any tax breaks, increase resident taxes, or hire more staff. And the plan directly benefits good citizens looking for work instead of luring out-of-state prosperous companies that bring in their own high paid senior staff.

Make mine a Bud, please (;-)

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Incentive plans are not a substitute for the good idea of helping companies already here.)

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NO MORE 2004

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Al

Al Forman, Editor 8/1/08

Box 1828, Palm City, FL 34991

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