BONITA SPRINGS — There is no shortage of important environmental land for sale in Lee County.

What the county does face is a shortage of money to buy that land.

The county Conservation 2020 program has spent $270 million in property taxes buying just under 21,000 acres. The program is fed by a tax of 50 cents for every $1,000 in taxable value. Voters approved the tax in a non-binding 1996 referendum and commissioners have adopted it every year since.

When the latest purchase closes the program will have around $3 million on hand. The tax is expected to generate from $12 million to $15 million in 2009. That’s not quite enough to pay the more than $150 million asking price of land up for grabs.

“I feel us being put in the unfortunate Solomon position of having to divide the baby,” Commissioner Frank Mann said Monday. “I don’t want Babcock on one side and CREW on the other.” Mann was referring to the Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed.

Babcock Ranch owner/developer Syd Kitson offered 2,250 acres to Conservation 2020 on Christmas Eve for $45 million. The county targeted the land before Kitson stepped in and bought it a few years ago.

CREW is thousands of acres of publicly owned swampland in east Lee and northern Collier County. The South Florida Water Management District has asked for county help finishing what it calls critical buys east of Bonita Springs.

The district wants to sell the county $16 million worth of land, then use the money to complete condemnation proceedings against remaining landowners. As it stands now the district would be standing in a long line.

“The (district) is appealing to our board,” said Lee Board of Commissioners Chairman Ray Judah. “It’s to our benefit to protect the Imperial River watershed.” The committee that advises on Conservation 2020 purchases shied away from the idea, however. The program works only with landowners who are willing sellers. County attorneys say the help would be legal because the district now owns the land and is willing, but the committee didn’t buy it.

“We don’t want any perception that the county’s partnering with condemnation activities by the state,” county lands director Karen Forsyth said.

Judah said perception isn’t what matters.

“I wouldn’t be worried about perception,” he said. “Legally we’ve been told we can do it. I think the key point is the $16 million.”

Conservation 2020 already has a list of 15 proposed purchases, buys with total asking prices of more than $96 million.

The east Bonita purchases might not crack the funding list. Forsyth will spend the next month prioritizing purchases and looking into bonding for more money or working with an organization like the Nature Conservancy or the Trust for Public Lands.

Those groups can buy land then sell it to governments for preservation.

“I consider CREW a top priority,” Commissioner Tammy Hall said. “But when I look at this list I think I would like to have some of these before CREW.” Commissioners will discuss the future of Conservation 2020 again in February.