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Help Save the South Carolina Conservation Bank

The S. C. Conservation bank was created in 2002, and has been the state’s most important land conservation tool, protecting nearly 250,000 acres of critical wildlife habitat, farm land, archeological sites, wetlands and scenic areas. However, the enabling legislation that created the S. C. Conservation Bank is slated to terminate in 2018, unless we ACT NOW to convince the S. C. State Legislature to enact legislation to eliminate the 2018 sunset provisions. The Conservation Bank is funded by state real estate transfer fees, and for this year’s budget, the S. C. House Ways and Means Committee has proposed to eliminate this unique, market-based transfer tax funding mechanism for the Conservation Bank – which has generated $18.3 million – and replace it with monies from the general fund, which will cut the Bank’s funds to $5 million. South Carolinians need to let their state senators and representatives know that we want to maintain the current mechanism to fully fund the Conservation Bank, and remove the sunset language in the enabling legislation.