Restoring sand to Venice and Anna Maria beaches
From the Herald-Tribune:
“There’s simply no public purpose for the state of Florida, much less the federal government, to be doing this,” said Eli Lehrer of R Street Institute — a nonpartisan organization in Washington, D.C.
In many cases, “the projects are to protect private homes owned by wealthy people,” Lehrer said. “We build up beaches that nature is going to wash away again.”
…The R Street Institute, named after a residential street in the nation’s capital that intersects with a street of political and lobbyist office buildings, concedes that beach renourishment has an economic benefit for waterfront communities.
“Those communities should tax themselves to pay for beach renourishment,” Lehrer said.
Lehrer sees no reason why taxpayers elsewhere in the state and nation who may never see an eroded beach should subsidize its restoration.
