Don Gaetz: Government-owned golf courses and hotels in state parks? A bad idea for Florida.

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.