Dockery to Scott: "Lay Off Our Parks"

I have a message for Gov. Rick Scott on behalf of the millions of Floridians and tourists who enjoy our award-winning state parks: Lay off them. They are neither for profit nor plunder.

Few truly believed that you would be an environmental leader, like most of your predecessors both Republican and Democrat, but we are shocked by the extent to which you have decimated the Department of Environmental Protection and the water management districts.

You've ignored the wishes of 4.2 million voters — 75 percent of those who voted in 2014 — by not properly funding conservation and preservation programs. You seem to miss the connection between our natural resources and tourism and business relocations. Did you ever stop to think that our beaches, rivers, lakes and state parks are the reason people come to Florida?

You brag about the state's natural beauty and claim you are responsible for it. You're not. Your actions have been detrimental and destructive. Reverse course before the damage is irreversible.

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