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Cover Story - Growth Planning
Who's Lesley Blackner?
Meet the woman whose ideas are hated by every business group in Florida.
Her group's website talks about discouraging in-migration by considering instituting an income tax and also advocates eliminating "pro-natalist" federal and state policies such as per-child tax credits after two children.
As Blackner sees it, immigration and migration make accommodating growth a Sisyphean task for Florida cities. "There's a finite supply of land; there's an infinite amount of population growth. The cost of living keeps going up. The cost of housing keeps going up because the population supply never stops," she says. "The more crowded an area gets, the more services it requires, the more taxes it requires, the more poor people you have. Listen, states that have stabilized their population tend to have a higher per capita income. What's Florida want for itself, to be the Wal-Mart of America, just lots of poor people?"
At their present rate, with 150,000 signatures, Blackner and Burnaman won't reach the 611,009 signatures they need by Feb. 1 to make the 2008 ballot. As it is, Blackner has provided $289,688 of the $406,415 contributed to her cause. "I'm at the end of my money," she says. "We need divine intervention.
"The place looks like hell and is getting worse. We've been told growth is inevitable. It's just like the sun coming up in the morning. It has to be this way. But no, it doesn't have to be this way," Blackner says. "Somebody has to have the courage to say things have to change. And I don't see any of our elected officials with the balls or the vision to say we don't want the Florida they're building for us. We don't want it."
ON THE WEB:
- Florida Hometown Democracy:
floridahometowndemocracy.com - Florida Chamber of Commerce:
flchamber.com - Growth Debate: Hometown Democracycounsel Ross Burnaman and opponent Patrick Slevin debated the proposed amendment, "A Discussion: NIMBY-ism," in the February 2004 issue of the Florida Bar Journal available online at floridabar.org. Search the site's Florida Bar Journal archives for February 2004 then look for the two pieces titled "A Discussion: NIMBY-ism."
