Guest Author
Apparently, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection hasn’t gotten the memo: We Republicans entrusted by the people to operate state government believe in free enterprise and private ownership and we’re against government using taxpayer-owned assets to compete against taxpaying citizens trying to earn a living.
We Republicans also believe in policies and actions that “ … conserve Florida’s natural resources, grow conservation lands and keep our environment pristine,” as explained by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ spokesperson. Republican President Theodore Roosevelt, who founded our national parks, couldn’t have said it better.
That’s why many Republican leaders were stunned, angered, and opposed when our DEP announced plans this past week to commercialize Florida’s state parks with golf courses, multi-hundred-unit hotels, and, yes, pickle ball courts.
Does Florida need golf courses owned by the state government? Does Florida need more golf courses, period?
Golf 20/20, an industry publication, and the National Golf Foundation report that golf courses have “diminishing value” and that some are closing. Fewer boomers than planned are playing golf. Fewer young players than hoped for are filling the ranks. Florida already has 1,250 golf courses. Many are very healthy. Some, including one near my home that folded down from 27 holes to 9, are struggling. Another nearby course now grows only weeds.
I want Florida to continue to be the golf capital of the world, attracting tens of thousands of visitors every year to our links. I want everyone who paid to live near a golf course or invested in building one to do well. I want all my pals to shoot under par.
I just don’t want our state government to own golf courses that compete against private businesses and golf communities that pay taxes.
The timbers ought to shiver in the hospitality industry, a dynamo of Florida’s economy and a huge contributor to the state’s revenues, at the prospect of state-owned hotels built on public land a few miles down the road from taxpaying hotels already struggling to keep a workforce.
The government should never be the decider as to whether and where to build hotels or develop golf courses. That’s not Republican, it’s not conservative and it doesn’t work.
All of that is only half the argument.
Florida’s 170 state parks are honored as the best in America, attracting 30 million visitors a year and producing billions of dollars in economic value. And that’s without pickleball. Our state parks are a wonderland for families, a safe space for creatures and Florida’s time capsule. They are the “Real Florida.”
A few years ago, Henderson Beach State Park, a wild treasure of rare natural dunes and seashore in my area, was proposed to be open for commercialization. Then-State Rep. Matt Gaetz and I, both rock-ribbed conservative Republicans, stopped it.
We need to stop this one. The original public hearings slated for Aug. 27 have been postponed until after Labor Day. Make no mistake, I’ll be at the hearing closest to me to voice my fervent opposition. I’ll be one cautionary voice among many Republicans and Democrats.
For 25 years, I’ve lived two miles from Rocky Bayou State Park. The Boy Scout troop I helped lead, and the Girl Scouts my wife led had many campouts there. Our kids built a bridge that still stands. Our friends and families have picnicked for years at Rocky Bayou beneath the centuries-old oaks. Now, it’s my four-year-old granddaughter’s wonderland.
When our son and daughter were Scouts, our troop had a rule for our use of the state park: “If it doesn’t grow wild in Florida, it doesn’t belong here.”
DEP’s plan, dubbed “The Great Outdoors Initiative,” doesn’t grow wild in Florida. It doesn’t belong in our state parks.
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Don Gaetz is the former President of the Florida Senate. He is the Republican nominee to represent Northwest Florida in the Senate in the 2024 General Election.
13 comments
Elvis [FKA Earl]
August 26, 2024 at 6:39 am
Thanks Don for following my Sage Leadership and denouncing this Boondoggle of a Fool’s Dream to get kickbacks from stabbing The Great State of Florida in the back.
Thanks Don for following my, ELVIS [FKA EARL] Sage “BARNEY FIFE” leadership to “NIP IT IN THE BUD”.
Lets start looking at who supports this as the “Politition(‘s)” who are behind this “Foolishness” and take them to court.
Thanks again Don,
ELVIS [FKA EARL]
*NIP IT, NIP IT, NIP IT IN THE BUD*
Larry Gillis, Libertarian (Cape Coral)
August 26, 2024 at 6:55 am
THE PROPER LIBERTARIAN VIEW:
The Libertarian Party of Florida would take all this even further. Specifically, the 2022 LPF Platform has this to say:
” X. Environment … 2. State Land Privatization … We oppose the creation of new government parks or wilderness and recreation areas. Such parks and areas that already exist should be transferred to non-government ownership. Pending such transfer, their operating costs should be borne by their users rather than by taxpayers. … “
Ocean Joe
August 26, 2024 at 7:06 am
“We Republicans also believe in policies and actions that “ … conserve Florida’s natural resources, grow conservation lands and keep our environment pristine…”
So explain again why it’s OK to sell off millions of gallons of spring waters every day to the lowest bidders.
Elizabeth Murray
August 26, 2024 at 5:41 pm
Not to mention the fact that they are bottling it in plastic, which may or may NOT be recycled. The sad part to me is that people think they are doing something healthy, but they are NOT.
On to the Parks debacle…. Just stop it!??? I come from a long time public park users, from South Florida to New York and beyond. I could go on and on about how my Irish forefathers moved to New York, had families who eventually became snowbirds. My grandfather was the commissioner of recreation in Queens New York. There is a free public park there named Murray Playground. This inner city park is teeming with outdoor activities, right in the middle of all the hustle and bustle. This is the type of park that needs ADDED development for outdoor activities such as ball games, even golf. They have tennis, handball, basketball, and beautiful gardens. I am not sure if they have pickle ball. In contrast, Florida State parks are not in need of being developed. They do not need more cars to run the bike riders, runners, equestrians off the roads. Our state parks already provide a safe quiet leisure environment for people to go relax, get exercise and feel clean and healthy. My point is that we do not need to ruin our parks so the politicians can appropriate our lands. Maybe they should start looking elsewhere for money. If they stopped standardized testing in public schools, they would save billions. I retired from a 36 year long career as a public school speech – language pathologist.
I can tell you how much time, money and children’s self esteem gets wasted because of standardized testing. It is just another farce. We just need to simmer down, and designate the parks forever free from development, and declare the citizens free from ever having to battle this war again. Then we can worry about the rest of it.
ScienceBLVR
August 26, 2024 at 9:01 am
Call me the skeptic, but does anyone else suspect this whole boondoggle was an event designed to not only distract from other Florida issues our government isn’t addressing, while at the same time, Gaetz & Gaetz, Rubio, Scott, et all are “Heroes for the environment”.
Who wouldn’t stand up for the deer and the pristine waters? Yeah, we’ll support the sugar polluters and condo developers and ignore the climate crisis.. But hey! I’m going save our parks! We won’t get fooled again..
Ocean Joe
August 26, 2024 at 9:46 am
No, I think it was a backdoor try to make somebody rich, probably preceded by campaign donations, and that our “wildly popular” governor thought he could get away with it like his effort to make Randy Fine president of FAU. Rare, but sometimes Republicans battle each other over the trough.
Elizabeth Murray
August 26, 2024 at 5:59 pm
I am with you, Science
Believer. I have old yellowed letters from allergy and sinus doctors dated 35 years ago describing the black tarry slime they had to remove from all of my sinus cavities. My asthma became the worst of my entire life right after I got my first school district job, commuting to and working in Pahokee, where they burn the sugar cane, and the poison fumes waft over the southern portion of our state. I knew that it was making me sick, and my doctors agreed. I had to have two horrifying polypectomies. The monstrous polyps came right back after the each surgery.
In addition to the environmental dangers (air pollution, water pollution and diversion, spraying chemicals like glycosphate that are like concentrated Round UP) from the procedures for how the sugar is produced, the fact remains that sugar is more addictive than cocaine. If we quit letting school cafeterias sell it, and we started growing hemp or more sustainable vegetables, we would be richer, healthier and smarter. Our water would be cleaner, and there would be more money in our budget. The point is that we do not need the sugar polluters to be subsidized any more. We need the money for the parks, since we are supposedly so broke that a bunch of golfers and their buddies have decided erroneously that the way to save Florida is by destroying our aquifers, and tearing out what is left of protected land. I am not a politician. I hope that is ok.
Peter B. Gallagher
August 26, 2024 at 9:33 am
Don Gaetz, put the blame where it belongs — with the one poerson who has yet to comment on the Florida Golf Course scandal. The man who’s staff released this stinkl bomb on the state was in Ireland, by design, on taxpayer money to watch a football game. As I write this all I hear is unnamed spokespersons comments for the Governor., The Party has no place in this issue. The other silent WOAT (worst of all time) was Sen Scott, merging in with Sen Gaetz, not owning up to the fact it was his original idea, calling it “irresponsible” without honor as he scrambles to hide where losing politicans go. Don, mgood work, but why stoip at laying the blame, put it where it belongs on the doorsetps of the Governor and the Senator. Hundreds of thousands have signed petitions. The whole face of the next election is changed. Rick won’t be able to take the Fifth on this one. Thanks for your vigilance. Keep the Party out of it. I’m a proud NP evere since I was old enough to be drafted. Thanks for not letting the platform tell you what to do. Would that more die-hards would follow suit!
Peter B. Gallagher
August 26, 2024 at 9:34 am
This is my only comment. It is noit a duplicate. Don Gaetz, put the blame where it belongs — with the one poerson who has yet to comment on the Florida Golf Course scandal. The man who’s staff released this stinkl bomb on the state was in Ireland, by design, on taxpayer money to watch a football game. As I write this all I hear is unnamed spokespersons comments for the Governor., The Party has no place in this issue. The other silent WOAT (worst of all time) was Sen Scott, merging in with Sen Gaetz, not owning up to the fact it was his original idea, calling it “irresponsible” without honor as he scrambles to hide where losing politicans go. Don, mgood work, but why stoip at laying the blame, put it where it belongs on the doorsetps of the Governor and the Senator. Hundreds of thousands have signed petitions. The whole face of the next election is changed. Rick won’t be able to take the Fifth on this one. Thanks for your vigilance. Keep the Party out of it. I’m a proud NP evere since I was old enough to be drafted. Thanks for not letting the platform tell you what to do. Would that more die-hards would follow suit!
Peter B. Gallagher
August 26, 2024 at 9:37 am
Peter Schorsch — why is my comment being held for moderation? I read your comments every day. I find it odd that you would tippy-toe back on this one. Please join with the hundreds of thousands OPENLY criticizing this Great Outdoors Mistake>
Rick Whitaker
August 26, 2024 at 4:47 pm
florida is a hellhole. everyone is ripping everyone off, yeah, a hellhole
Elizabeth Murray
August 26, 2024 at 6:06 pm
It used to be a heavenly haven.
Rick Whitaker
August 26, 2024 at 6:17 pm
ELIZABETH MURRAY, i moved from south florida in 1968, best thing iv’e ever done. now, i can’t imagine even visiting desantistan. good luck to you. vote dem.
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