Wasteful government agency shuttered

FORT MYERS — The Lee Soil and Conservation District has been dissolved, the result of a citizen effort to cut wasteful government spending.

Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam approved the district's request to be dissolved, ending a six-year, citizen-led effort to eliminate the government agency.

The district was created in 1947 as a conduit for federal and state grants for farmers, but it had mutated into a slush fund for politicians and bureaucrats. In recent years, the agency's only task was to provide free inspections of residential sprinkler systems.

Starting in 2007, voters elected citizens who argued the district should be dissolved. The group cut the budget to zero and began sending $10 checks to more than 7,000 property owners in Lee County.

You can read a recent story about that effort in the Business Observer here.