Voter Initiatives May Face Limits

House, Senate Target Citizen Efforts
Legislators Were Accused of Betraying Voters as They Proposed Ways  to Soften Voter-approved Amendments and Make it Harder  for Citizens and Special-interest Groups to Change the Constitution.

By Mary Ellen Klas
The Miami Herald
Apr. 11, 2005

TALLAHASSEE - Florida lawmakers are so annoyed by the avalanche of special-interest groups that commandeered the state Constitution in November that they are pushing a series of bills that will make it harder for those groups to amend the state charter in the future.

But that's not their only revenge: They also are writing the rules to put into practice the amendments on medical malpractice, slot machines and minimum wage that voters approved -- and, in each case, are limiting the scope of the amendments and restricting their impact.

Proponents of the amendments are crying foul and accuse legislators of betraying voters. Legislative leaders say they are only doing their job.

''They have essentially eviscerated the intent of the amendments and have gone against the will of the people,'' said Alexander Clem, president of the Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers, who led the effort to pass Amendments 7 and 8 on medical malpractice.

House and Senate leaders say they are simply trying to sort out the complicated questions surrounding the issues put on the ballot by multimillion-dollar advocacy campaigns that had no concern for how to make the policy change work.

''A lot of things are getting on the ballot that make for great politics but very poor policy,'' said Senate President Tom Lee, a Brandon Republican. ``You get them into the legislative process, and see how these issues play out . . . and the Legislature is forced by its conscience to weigh in.''

SEVERAL ISSUES

Some examples:

•• Doctors with the Florida Medical Association pleaded with legislators in several committees to soften the impact of the amendment that gives patients the ''right to know'' about past medical mistakes involving doctors and hospitals.

They fear the measure will discourage doctors from practicing in Florida and harm their peer review process.

The bill moving through the House does lessen the amendment's impact: It limits which patients can obtain the records, barring anyone who just wants to doctor shop or check a hospital's record on something like infection control.

•• The amendment to get tough on bad doctors, which would require the state to repeal the license of doctors found guilty of three incidents of medical malpractice, has been restricted in both the House and Senate. Rather than allow for a blanket repeal of the medical license after a judge or jury finds the doctor guilty three times, legislators want to let the doctor-controlled Board of Medicine decide which cases qualify as strikes.

•• The plan to raise the minimum wage by $1 is also complicated. Both the House and Senate have provisions that will shield employers from being sued for failing to properly implement the wage increase, and limit what employees can recover.

•• Finally, the plan to allow Broward County to have slot machines at its four parimutuel sites has come down to a fight over what qualifies as slot machines. Proponents say voters expected the traditional, Las Vegas-style, coin-dropping machines, considered Class III gaming. A House bill, however, defines them as electronic bingo machines, or Class II machines, which simply look like slot machines but generate two-thirds the revenues.

House Speaker Allan Bense, a Panama City Republican, said he doubts many voters thought through the difference when they voted for slot machines.

''We can debate whether it's a Class II or Class III machine that voters voted for. I'm not sure the voters know the difference,'' he said.

`HYPOCRITICAL'

To Daniel Smith, a University of Florida political science professor and an expert on direct democracy, this turn of events is ``incredibly hypocritical [and] at the same time somewhat consistent.''

'They're trying to tear apart the citizen initiative process as well as not listening to the citizens' voice when they do pass measures,'' he said.

The Florida Legislature's track record has been to ignore many citizen-backed amendments, Smith said, because ``it's taking away their power.''

For example, legislators have not found new money to pay for class-size caps. They passed a plan to offer pre-kindergarten classes to all 4-year-olds, but scaled the program down as narrowly as possible.

They refused to pay for a high-speed rail system, until they persuaded voters to repeal it.

They have never implemented the 1988 amendment to make English the ''official language'' of the state and they never enacted the 1996 ''polluters pay'' amendment to make the sugar industry pay to clean up pollution in the Everglades.

BACKTRACKING

This year, some legislators also want to backtrack on one of the amendments they put on the ballot themselves: The requirement that parents be notified when an underage daughter seeks an abortion. The amendment requires that pregnant girls be allowed to ask a court to avoid telling her parents about her planned abortion, but a bill in the House prohibits anyone under age 16 from going to court to get that permission.

''This is about who has power in the state Legislature,'' said Smith, who is critical of citizen initiatives when they masquerade as ''faux populism,'' but believes they can also increase voter turnout and voter education.

After watching protections for pregnant pigs receive the same space in the state Constitution as changes to the state's education governing system, many legislators believe Florida's citizen initiative process has been hijacked by well-financed special interests and must be changed.

The Senate proposes putting an end to the heavily financed amendment-petition campaigns with a bill that would make it a second-degree felony for anyone to pay or be paid ''directly or indirectly'' for collecting signatures to put a proposed amendment on the ballot.

Both the House and Senate are advancing bills that would ask voters to limit any future referendum to only those that amend or repeal an existing section of the Constitution, address the right of a citizen, or change the basic structure of state government.

NO PASSAGE

Had this been in effect, not a single controversial amendment would have passed in the past 15 years.

Gone would be the amendments relating to class size, parental notification for abortions, pre-

kindergarten, pregnant pigs, high-speed rail service, smoking in restaurants, medical malpractice and the minimum wage.

The Senate also wants to require that any citizen initiative that costs the state, cities, counties and school boards more than $60 million be approved by a two-thirds vote of the voters in that election.

Paul Jacobs, of the Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Term Limits campaign, warns Florida legislators they are sending voters the wrong message by tinkering with these amendments.

''The fact that so much time is spent on these things that the public has decided and the Legislature doesn't happen to like is a sign they need more reform, not less,'' he said.

But to enact the changes they want, legislators have to go back to voters -- and get them to amend the Constitution.

''That's where the hypocrisy is,'' Smith said. Legislators ``don't have any problem when those same citizens elect them into office.''

Legislators want to change that a bit, too. The Florida House has passed a plan to extend legislative term limits from eight to 12 years. The proposed constitutional amendment passed the House 92-24 and needs to be approved by the state Senate before it can go before voters in 2006.

Proposals Are on the Table in Both Legislative Chambers That
Would Make it Harder for Citizens to Change the Florida Constitution.

The Florida Legislature's Disdain for Democracy

Amendment Process On Agenda

By Allison North Jones
The Tampa Tribune
January 13, 2005

TALLAHASSEE - After falling short in 2004, legislators say they're determined this year to make it harder for citizens to amend the Florida Constitution.

Six amendments approved by voters in November are the latest among dozens proposed and adopted in recent years. The process increasingly frustrates lawmakers and others who say it has been hijacked by special interest groups.

The result, they say, is a constitution that strays from its original intent.

"The constitution should be a document that lays out the goals of government,'' said Talbot "Sandy'' D'Alemberte, former president of Florida State University and the American Bar Association, testifying Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Florida, D'Alemberte said, is saddled instead with a lengthy document full of descriptions of process more suited for state statutory language.

Many in the Legislature agree, and they hope that with new leadership this year, they can change the amendment process or at least reduce the number of proposals that emerge in each election cycle.

The Legislature considered revisions last year, but the effort was sacrificed in a feud between the presiding officers of the House and Senate.

At least one lawmaker has set the bar higher this year, pushing to reform not only the amendment process but the document itself.

Sen. Daniel Webster, R-Winter Garden, said his colleagues should consider overhauling the constitution and offering a new version to voters for approval.

Webster, a former House speaker who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, called his plan "a purification of the state constitution.''

"There are things that have been added that are not rights of the people,"he said. "We need to take things out that don't belong in the constitution."

Webster, a religious conservative, said he didn't have a model for what to remove from the document, but he said his committee should examine it "article by article" with an eye on issues ranging from privacy provisions to protecting pregnant pigs.

Calling it an "intriguing idea," Senate President Tom Lee, R-Brandon, warned: "We have to be cautious as a Legislature to not reach too far or be too aggressive."

Others said the Legislature should focus on the process, not the document.

"It's not the constitution that's broken; it's the way we put things on the ballot that is broken and needs to be revised," said Mark Wilson, senior vice president of the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

As lawmakers spend time in Tallahassee before the legislative session starts in March - setting their agenda and attending committee meetings - revising the amendment process is obviously a priority.

On Wednesday, committees in the House and Senate discussed constitutional reform and how to implement the voter initiatives passed in November.

Proposals include limiting the role of interest groups, imposing a judicial filter to let courts preview an initiative for constitutional compliance, and raising the passage threshold for any amendment, whether proposed by citizen initiative or by legislators.

          Panels to Work on Amendment Process, Independence Issues

By Gary Blankenship
Senior Editor
The Florida Bar News
January 1, 2005

The Bar will be taking a careful look at how the state constitution is amended and judicial independence with two new committees approved by the Board of Governors.

The board, at its December 10 meeting, approved the recommendation of the Program Evaluation Committee to create the Special Board Committee on Judicial Independence, sought by Bar President Kelly Overstreet Johnson, and the Special Board Committee to Study the Florida Constitutional Amendment Process, sought by President-elect Alan Bookman.

The judicial independence committee will "consider various methods of strengthening Florida’s judiciary and maintaining its independence, including but not limited to possible changes in state constitutional or statutory law," Johnson said in a memo to the board.

"Among specific issues of likely consideration, I would hope that this group would explore potential changes in the composition and appointment of our state’s judicial nominating commissions, money raising options to endorse candidates supporting judicial independence, as well as other reforms."

Johnson said while she hopes the committee can finish its work before her term ends in June, there’s a good chance it will require more time.

The chair is board member Jesse Diner, and other members are board members Gwynne Young, vice chair, Ervin Gonzalez, Kim Bald, Jay White, Chris Lombardo, Greg Parker, Henry Latimer, Scott Hawkins, and Mayanne Downs.

The action on the constitutional amendment committee came after the board had a discussion at its October meeting about whether the Florida Constitution is being degraded by numerous initiative petitions on topics ranging from gambling to care of pregnant pigs to high-speed rail systems.

""It has obviously been a concern to the Bar and the legislative and executive branches," Bookman said. "We need to study this issue, and we need to see if any changes need to be made.

"We need to protect citizens’ right to participate, but the constitution is our founding document and it needs to be protected from unnecessary changes."

As an example, Bookman noted that voters approved in 2000 a constitutional amendment requiring the state to build a bullet train linking major cities, and then repealed it in 2004.

He said the committee will likely look at allowing citizens to enact statutes by initiative, something they now cannot do, while making the constitutional amendment process more restrictive. He also said the panel would look at proposed legislation, including two bills already filed in the Senate. One of those would limit citizen amendment initiatives to issues affecting basic human rights, and the other would require a 60 percent passage rate for amendments.

The committee, Bookman said, hopefully will work with the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, as well as the public and business interests to seek a common ground.

The panel will be chaired by board member Harold Melville. Other members are public member Blair Culpepper, who will be vice chair, and board members Nancy Gregoire, Scott Hawkins, Chris Lombardo, Ross Goodman, Grier Wells, and Larry Sellers. Bookman said he hopes the committee can have its final report by August.

(Note - Statutes by initiative could be repealed by the next legislative session without public intiative)

Legislators: Petition process needs limits
House Set to Take up Amendment Plan this Week

By Bill Cotterell
Tallahassee Democrat
April 11, 2004

Florida legislators agree it should be harder to amend the state constitution by public petition, but they know it will be hard to sell that to voters.

"It's going to take some effort to convince the public that this is the right thing to do," said Rep. Joe Pickens, R-Palatka, a lawyer who heads a special House committee on constitutional amendment reform. "But there are limitations that are sorely needed."

A Mason-Dixon Florida Poll last week indicated that 44 percent of voters oppose changing the system, while 39 percent believe some tightening of the rules is warranted.

Since the state constitution was adopted in 1968, hundreds of petition drives have been launched, but only 16 have succeeded. It's relatively easy for interest groups with money and staff, all but impossible for genuine grass-roots organizations.

The rules for do-it-yourself lawmaking have become controversial in recent years, as voters have approved some big-ticket items.

The multibillion dollar cost of amendments requiring a "bullet train" between major cities and smaller classes in public schools prompted the Legislature to set up special committees last year to consider raising the threshold for public petitions.

The Senate has already voted on its plan. This week, when the Legislature returns from a break, House members are scheduled to take up theirs.

Ironically, an issue with little or no budget impact might be the best selling point for Gov. Jeb Bush and legislative leaders who want to change the system. That was the 2002 measure prescribing the size of "gestation crates" for pregnant sows.

"On one hand, public initiative does look like 'power to the people,' until you look at who's sponsoring most of the amendments. Then it becomes a different story," said Susan MacManus, a political-science professor at the University of South Florida. "On the other hand, all you have to do is mention pregnant pigs. Then people see what kind of stuff can be done by petition."

The Constitution has been amended 95 times since 1970, but only 16 of those changes were made by petition initiatives.

There are 48 initiative petitions on file in the Secretary of State's office, but only a few of them have the money and organization to have a chance at reaching the ballot. Over the past 36 years, petition amendments have brought about the state lottery, imposed eight-year term limits on legislators and Cabinet members, limited the size of trawling nets used in coastal waters and forbidden indoor smoking in workplaces.

Repeated efforts to authorize casino gambling have failed since 1978. The Florida Supreme Court has blocked others before they got to the ballot.

The Senate has already voted on a plan that would give the Supreme Court wider latitude to block amendments when they address matters such as hog pens or workplace smoking that are normally handled by statute. Currently, the court can exclude measures only if they deal with more than one topic or if the ballot language isn't clear.

Once a proposed amendment gets on the ballot, the Senate plan would require a 60-percent vote instead of a simple majority for approval.

Legislators decided not to raise the number of voter signatures - 488,722 - needed to put an idea on the ballot or to forbid the use of paid canvassers for gathering names.

Changes to the amendment process also require a constitutional amendment. The Senate favors having the public vote on Aug. 31, the date of the Florida primaries so the new rules could be approved in time to apply to any amendments appearing on the Nov. 2 general election ballot.

The House ethics and elections subcommittee is set to consider a similar package Wednesday, followed by a Thursday hearing in the House Policy Committee. Floor action is likely next week, followed by House-Senate negotiations.

Bush, who has unsuccessfully sought repeal of the class-size and bullet-train amendments, said he was "really surprised" by the Mason-Dixon Poll showing that more voters oppose changing the petition process. But once voters realize that those two items will eat "a significant percentage of the disposable budget," he said, they'll be willing to "support reasonable reforms."

One major difference between the House and Senate proposals is that the Senate wants the 60-

percent requirement to apply to all proposed amendments, even those put on the ballot by the Legislature or the Constitution Revision Commission, the group appointed to review the constitution every 20 years.

The House version to be debated this week would require 60-percent approval only on those privately sponsored by industries, trade associations or any citizen going the petition route.

Pickens said it's "a reasonable trade-off" because petition amendments don't go through the process of public hearings and debate by legislators elected by the people, as joint resolutions of the House and Senate do. But MacManus said having a higher requirement for petitions will be politically fatal for the proposed changes.

"That would kill it right there," she said. "You just can't have one standard for amendments from the Legislature and another one for the people."

Philip Blumel of the Florida Initiative League, a private group formed to defend the petition process, thinks requiring a 60-percent majority will be a deal-breaker whether it applies to all amendments or just those put on the ballot by petition. Blumel guided a successful term-limits effort for Palm Beach County commissioners and predicts that citizens won't bother contributing to a petition effort "if they know we can get 59.9 percent of the vote and still lose."

"These changes are really aimed at crippling the process," he said. "There just won't be any more public initiative."

Leon County Elections Supervisor Ion Sancho said the Aug. 31 early referendum is also a problem. Sancho said the vote should be taken Nov. 2, when voter turnout will be about twice as high.

"They're trying to hide it from the voters," Sancho said. "The argument that they have to do this in August instead of November, I think, is an insult to the voters. They're essentially saying the voters are too dumb to find the issue in November."

Not so, said Sen. Rod Smith, D-Gainesville, a sponsor of the reform legislation. If legislators wanted to hide it, Smith said, they would want the referendum on the November ballot - where it would be lost among the presidential, U.S. Senate, congressional, state legislative and city-

county elections.

"Yes, I think it's going to be a hard sell. I've always thought that," Smith said. "But I think if we lay our case out, we will be successful."

Senate OK's 60 Percent Constitution Requirement

From Herald Wire Services
April 02, 2004

Class-size reduction and high-speed rail may not have made it to the Florida Constitution under a proposal the state Senate passed Thursday to limit costly citizen initiatives.

The Senate would require 60 percent of voters to approve amending the state's Constitution, a move made out of frustration over those two issues that will cost billions and, some say, threaten Florida's long-term fiscal health.

Neither class size nor high-speed rail -- both driven to the ballot by petition drive -- drew enough votes to satisfy the proposed 60 percent standard. Currently, only a simple majority of 50 percent plus one is needed for passing an initiative amendment.

Also passing the Senate were measures approving tighter deadlines for groups wanting to bring issues to the ballot and limiting the types of subjects that can be addressed by citizen initiative.

Each of the bills still needs to pass the House, and voters would then get the final say on the standards. All three measures cleared the Senate, and the House is expected to approve the plan to increase the amendment-passage standard.             

Charter-change Rules at Issue
Senate Gives Preliminary Approval to Proposals That Would Make
it More Difficult for Citizens to Change the State Constitution

By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald
April, 01, 2004

TALLAHASSEE - Proclaiming they needed to protect the sanctity of the Florida Constitution, the state Senate gave preliminary approval to three measures Wednesday that would make it harder for citizens to change the state charter.

The proposals -- three constitutional amendments that would be on the ballot on Aug. 31 -- require all future citizen petitions to get approval from the Florida Supreme Court, collect at least 60 percent of the vote to pass, and lengthen the time voters have to review proposed amendments.

Senators rejected efforts to lower the proposed voting threshold from 60 to 55 percent, as well one that would require the Legislature's own proposed constitutional amendments to go through the same Supreme Court screening process as citizen initiatives.

''Should the representatives of the people have to ask the court whether the people should have a right to vote?'' asked Sen. Jeff Atwater, a North Palm Beach Republican who co-authored the Senate proposals.

``You put this in and we are forever locked out.''

The Senate bills will come to a final vote today or Friday and a set of similar proposals will be voted on by a House committee today.

The proposed amendments must have three-fifths of the vote in each chamber before they can be put on the ballot.

The proposed amendments are a response to the 2002 election, in which voters enshrined into the state Constitution changes that banned the crating of pregnant pigs, ordered the state to offer quality prekindergarten classes to 4-year-olds, banned smoking in restaurants and set limits on class sizes in elementary schools.

Under the Senate plan, before a citizen initiative can make it to the ballot, it must pass a three-part test by the Florida Supreme Court. It would have to relate to basic constitutional rights, to the fundamental structure of government or to existing constitutional provisions.

Now, proposed constitutional amendments receive a court review but justices are allowed to rule only on whether the ballot language is misleading or covers more than one subject.

The Senate proposals, and their companions in the House, have gotten increasing opposition from several citizen-initiative groups that criticize the Legislature for tightening the requirements to change the Constitution but offer nothing in return for citizens who are unhappy with lawmakers' performance.

None of the changes would affect any of the proposals Senate leaders want to put on the ballot -- such as a plan to require the state budget to identify revenue sources five years into the future.

Several other proposals, such as a plan by Gov. Jeb Bush and Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher to repeal an amendment mandating the construction of a bullet train across the state, would also be exempt.

                     A House Committee on Constitutional Reforms
                   Recommends That Sponsors of Citizen Initiatives
             Must Get 60 Percent of the Vote to Win Ultimate Passage

By Mary Ellen Klas
The Miami Herald
March 9, 2004

TALLAHASSEE - Citizen groups that want to bypass the Legislature in amending the state Constitution would have to get 60 percent of the vote under a proposal endorsed by a key House committee on Monday.

The House Select Committee on Constitutional Amendments made 12 suggestions to House leaders that are designed to rework the way people can get proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot.

A similar Senate committee has also drafted a series of recommendations that raise the threshold for approving future citizen initiatives from 50 percent plus one vote to 60 percent.

One Step Further

But the House committee voted to take the reforms one step further. It recommended that any citizen initiative that costs money should identify the tax or revenue sources that would pay for it.

The so-called ''no hidden taxes'' proposal would trigger a requirement already in the Constitution that requires two-thirds approval of those voting in the election -- or 67 percent -- before any tax is raised.

Democrats complained that the Republican-led Legislature was holding citizen initiatives to a higher standard than it holds itself, because lawmakers will still be able to put proposed amendments before voters and need only more than 50 percent of the vote to get it passed. Democratic Rep. Dwight Stansel, of Live Oak, warned that if legislators load up the proposals with too many restrictions, they not only wouldn't pass but would backfire.

Rep. Stacy Ritter, a Coral Springs Democrat, said that the proposals were designed ``to do one simple thing -- that is, take away people's rights.''

''We're not taking anything away,'' replied Rep. Frank Farmas, a Clearwater Republican. ``We're giving a chance for people to vote.''

Ritter replied: ``I thought people gave us the power, not the other way around.''

Rep. Don Brown, a DeFuniak Springs Republican, said that giving legislators a lower standard than the public was grounded in the historical precedence of representative government.

The committee also recommended the proposed changes be put before voters on the Aug. 31 ballot but that will require a three-fourths vote by the Legislature, which would require some Democratic support.

Under the current initiative process, Floridians can propose changes to the constitution if they collect 489,000 voter signatures within four years.

The House committee recommended changing the time period to two years and developing an independent process to screen ballot titles and summaries.

It also wants to require that citizen initiatives only cover subjects not included in legislation. Had the recommendations been in effect in 2002, controversial amendments such as the restaurant smoking ban and shrinking class sizes might have failed. 

                      Lawmakers Work on Changing Citizen Initiative Process

Jackie Hallifax
Associated Press
Miami Herald
February 22, 2004

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - It's no thanks to the Legislature that retired teacher Valerie LaHart can eat in restaurants again and not have to leave halfway through the meal because of secondhand smoke.

"I don't think any of you guys would have stood up to Big Tobacco," LaHart told the House Select Committee on Constitutional Reform.

Luckily for LaHart, the Legislature isn't always the final word on Florida law. Groups whom lawmakers ignore or reject can go directly to voters with proposed constitutional amendments.

It's the "citizen initiative" process - and lawmakers want to make it harder. Changing the rules is a top priority for the Legislature, which will begin its annual two-month session March 2.

Groups that want to change the state constitution must do three things: limit the scope of their proposal to a single subject, clearly explain it in a ballot title and summary, and collect the signatures of half a million voters.

That's how the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association and the American Heart Association ultimately banned smoking in restaurants and other workplaces. They got the proposal on the 2002 ballot and it was approved in a landslide. It won more votes than Gov. Jeb Bush.

Rep. Joe Pickens, who chairs the House committee studying changes, belongs to the Cancer Society. And he lost his father to a smoking-related cancer.

But Pickens, R-Palatka, voted against the smoking ban. He just doesn't think it belongs in the constitution, which he believes should be reserved for fundamental issues, such as the structure of government and the rights of individuals.

"It's the basic framework of government, not the day-to-day minutia that is involved in statutory law," Pickens said.

Florida is one of 24 states that give citizens an initiative process - and the rules vary widely from state to state. However, most of those states let voters propose and pass statutes as well as changing the state constitution. Only Florida, Illinois and Mississippi do not have a statutory initiative.

In Florida, the citizen initiative process has been used to impose term limits on lawmakers, ban some fishing nets and order the state to start building a high-speed train, reduce class sizes and make preschool available to everybody.

Lawmakers struggling to come up with the money to pay for smaller class sizes and looking at the future costs of a bullet train and universal prekindergarten argue that voters don't understand the real-world fiscal implications of these measures.

Critics of the current system say special interest groups with deep pockets basically buy their way onto the ballot by paying petition gatherers to collect the required signatures.

"It's too darn easy," Senate President Jim King said.

King, R-Jacksonville, puts the issue at the top of his agenda and created a special legislative committee to study it.

House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, R-Plant City, predicted the Legislature will come up with some proposed changes.

"Everybody has the general sense I guess that ... the constitution is being amended too frequently with ideas that they don't perceive to be constitutional," Byrd said.

The concern that voters are putting unconstitutional measures into the Florida Constitution is summed up in the Capitol by two words heard over and over in the debate: "pregnant pigs."

In 2002, voters approved a citizen initiative that banned crating pregnant pigs in cages too small for them to turn around. It was a near landslide, with 54 percent approval.

"I don't want to deny the citizens of Florida the opportunity to make a statement through the constitution but I want to make it a little bit more difficult to do so so we don't have the pregnant pig scenario over and over again," King said.

There are 50 proposals filed with the state Division of Elections - but most won't make the ballot. Lawmakers say they're still worried.

"Some are kind of scary," King said, referring to a proposal that would require voter approval for changes in zoning.

King said that measure "probably would bring local government and development to its knees." He wants to block some of the proposals in the pipeline by enacting some of the changes before the general election in November.

But lawmakers can't do it alone.

One of the changes they seem most interested in is requiring a higher threshold of voter approval for passage. Currently a measure is added to the constitution if it is supported by a simple majority - 50 percent plus one.

Lawmakers are looking at requiring a supermajority vote for approval, ranging from 60 percent to 67 percent. But voters would have to agree.

King has suggested lawmakers consider taking a supermajority to voters this summer rather than waiting until the general election in November. But he'd need support of three-quarters of the Legislature.

Other proposals under consideration deal with deadlines and signature requirements. Some would require voter approval, some would not.

Business groups are pushing hard for changes, arguing the state constitution needs protection from special interest groups.

The constitution is supposed to be a "timeless" document that lays out "the very basic core fundamental values as a society that we want to put forward and have all of our actions judged against in the future," said Warren Husband, with the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

The chamber wants to see the voter threshold raised to two-thirds - 67 percent - up from a simple majority.

Common Cause of Florida doesn't want lawmakers to make the process tougher. Ben Wilcox, director of the nonprofit watchdog group, testified that it may be too tough now unless a sponsor has a lot of money.

"It's a problem that the initiative process may be out of reach for true grassroots organizations and only available now to people or interest groups who can hire a company to collect signatures," Wilcox said.

He said he has mixed feelings about the debate.

"I'm all for a clean constitution that sticks to basic and fundamental issues of government," he said. "And I don't particularly like the fact that we have pregnant pigs and fishing nets and bullet trains in the constitution."

But, in the end, all citizen initiatives face voters, Wilcox said.

He told lawmakers that he voted against the high-speed train because he didn't think it belonged in the constitution.

"But you know you can look at that issue two ways," he said. "It's either the biggest boondoggle in Florida history or one of the most far-reaching visionary things that we have ever done."

And, he added, there are some things lawmakers will probably never do - like fix the way it draws political districts every 10 years.

"A citizen's initiative is probably the only way that would happen," Wilcox said.

 

Leaders Look at Tougher Petition Process

Following criticism that the amendment process is too easy, state legislators begin considering proposals to make it harder for citizen groups to get initiatives onto the ballot.

By Jackie Hallifax
Associated Press Writer
Miami Herald
February 3, 2004

TALLAHASSEE Fl - State lawmakers started discussing proposals Monday to make it harder for groups to change the Florida Constitution by petition drive.

Special committees in both the House and Senate have taken testimony over the last few months on the state's citizen initiative process, which legislative leaders and business groups say has gotten out of control.

The House Select Committee on Constitutional Amendments will meet at least twice more before making recommendations, said Rep. Joe Pickens, the Palatka Republican chairing the committee. A Senate committee planned to begin its debate Tuesday.

Under the current system, groups can get proposed changes to the state Constitution on the ballot by collecting half a million signatures, limiting their measure to a single subject and clearly describing it in a ballot title and summary.

Many legislators and business groups argue the process is too easy and has resulted in the Florida Constitution being cluttered with inappropriate provisions, such as bans on some fishing nets and crates to hold pregnant pigs. Both reached the ballot by citizen initiative and were approved by voters.

Critics argue even more loudly that the state can't afford some of the initiatives that voters have approved, such as a high-speed train and class-size reduction.

And they point to all the proposals in the pipeline, warning that as many as 50 measures could end up on the November ballot.

However, 41 of the 51 citizen initiatives filed with the state Division of Elections have zero signatures verified and reported.

Researchers and citizen-initiative proponents say only a handful intend to make the ballot.

In addition to the citizen initiatives, lawmakers have filed 32 proposed changes.

Gov. Jeb Bush, a loud and passionate opponent of both the high-speed rail project and class-size reduction, asked lawmakers last spring to consider making it harder for groups to use the citizen initiative process.

Lawmakers didn't take him up on that recommendation last year but seem eager to in the two-month session that begins March 2. Both House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, R-Plant City, and Senate President Jim King, R-Jacksonville, created special committees to make recommendations.

Most of the changes that lawmakers are considering, such as a higher threshold for passage or limits on subject matter, would themselves require voter approval.

One of the proposals presented Monday in the House committee would raise the current threshold for passage from a simple majority of 50 percent plus one to a supermajority of 60 percent.

The panel spent little time discussing that measure (HJR 49) by Rep. Carole Green, R-Fort Myers. Another measure, sponsored by Rep. Jim Kallinger, would eliminate or replace the ability of voters to directly change the constitution by citizen initiative with an ''advisory initiative'' process.

Under that system, voters could make recommendations that the Legislature would have to consider but not adopt.

Kallinger, R-Winter Park, said his proposal (HJR 67) wouldn't take away any rights but would check the power of special interest groups who ''hoodwink'' voters into supporting something that's not good for the state.

                            Curb on Petition Drives Weighed

Lawmakers say the current method to get measures on the ballots is out of control, but initiative sponsors say the process is anything but easy.

Miami Herald
December 26, 2003

TALLAHASSEE - (AP) -- John Sowinski and David Biddulph know a thing or two about petition drives.

Between them they have worked on or organized nearly a dozen citizen initiatives, running the gamut from term limits and property taxes to high-speed rail and a smoking ban.

Most are now part of the Florida Constitution. But it took hundreds of thousands of signatures and approval from the state Supreme Court to reach the ballot -- and neither Sowinski nor Biddulph think it was easy.

''It's nearly impossible,'' Biddulph said.

But legislative leaders believe the current process is out of control and want to consider ways to make it more difficult for voters to bypass the Legislature and change state government.

Sen. Rod Smith, who is leading a special Senate committee studying the issue, said he believes reforms are needed to shield the state constitution from issues that don't belong in it -- issues that are backed by special interests.

''I think that people are now realizing that this is no longer a populist effort as much as it is one well-financed special interest versus another well-funded special interest and that's not what this was designed to do,'' Smith, D-Alachua, told reporters after a meeting earlier this month.A similar House panel is also looking at tightening up the process. Like Smith, Rep. Joe Pickens, the Palatka Republican running that committee, thinks issues that aren't constitutional in nature are junking up the state Constitution.

Unlike most states with citizen initiatives, Floridians cannot change state law by petition drive. They can only propose changes to the state constitution, which would then require action by the Legislature creating laws to implement the wishes of citizens.

Sowinski said the Florida Constitution has a lot of minutiae in it -- and much he feels put there by lawmakers themselves.

''When the government is out of sync with three-quarters of the electorate, there ought to be a way,'' Sowinski said.

``The most important part of the Florida Constitution is Article One, Section One: All political power is inherent in the people.''

But some lawmakers say some recent changes made by voters -- high-speed rail and smaller class sizes -- cost taxpayers too much. They argue that big-money special interests have created a cottage industry in petition drives to change the constitution.

Lawmakers worry that a record number of petitions could make the ballot in 2004, raising the specter that Florida could face as many ballot proposals as make the ballot in California.

 49 Drives  `Active'

The state lists 49 petition drives as ''active.'' But several of those initiatives were filed before Gov. Jeb Bush was first elected in 1998 and have yet to have a single verified signature reported to the state. The initiatives include a proposal against child abuse and a measure to create a Canadian-style health care system.

Daniel Smith, an associate professor of political science at the University of Florida who has studied citizen initiatives across the country, doubts more than a a handful will make the Florida ballot.

''I don't see this rash of initiatives taking over Florida any time soon,'' Smith said.

State lawmakers can sponsor constitutional amendments through the Legislature, but a few this year have begun their own petition drives. In fact, five of the 49 ''citizen'' initiatives are sponsored by committees led by lawmakers -- including one that would partially repeal the class-size amendment approved by voters and disliked by Bush and many lawmakers.

Damien Filer, who worked on the original class-size amendment, doesn't have much sympathy for lawmakers who are faced with paying for the constitutional amendments that make the ballot via petition drive.

''If representative government were more representative people wouldn't be turning to ballot initiatives,'' he said.

Florida Legislature: http://www.leg.state.fl.us/

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