Protecting Florida\u2019s Fundamental Law

TALLAHASSEE REPORT

Protecting Florida’s Fundamental Law

By Adam Basford, Director of State Legislative Affairs

For too long the

Florida Constitution has been used like a grocery list instead of receiving the respect it deserves. Look, I understand amending my grocery list. Too often I have walked into the grocery store with my wife’s list (which she lists in order from the back of the store to the front, by the way) and made a few strategic amendments.

It is one thing to get a little fast and loose with my grocery list, but it is quite another to amend indiscriminately the charter document of the third most populous state in the nation.

Since the current Florida Constitution was passed in 1968, 181 amendments have been proposed with 133 of the amendments passing. And while I know the comparison is not entirely fair, I cannot help but contrast that with the 27 amendments to the US Constitution in 241 years.

You can chalk that difference up to the five separate ways that are prescribed to amend the Florida constitution.

One is a constitutional convention, which has not been used in recent times. The second is the legislature can send an amendment to voters by a three-fifths vote of both chambers.

It is time for us to start making it more difficult for Florida’s constitution to be amended.

Then there is a citizen initiative process that allows voters to place amendments on the ballot through petition. There is also the Constitution Revision Commission (CRC), which is appointed by state leaders and meets every 20 years.

The Tax and Budget Reform Commission, which meets between the CRC meetings, is limited to fiscal matters.

The legislature, citizen initiative and CRC all placed amendments on the ballot in 2018, causing your ballot to

balloon with 12 amendments (11 of which passed).

It is time for us to start making it more difficult for Florida’s constitution to be amended. That is why I am very happy to see several proposals moving forward in the legislature that would do just that.

One proposal seeks to eliminate the CRC. Another would ensure that all proposed amendments are restricted to a single subject. The threshold to pass an amendment would be increased from 60% to 66.6% in a third proposal.

Finally, a fourth proposal would protect against outof-state interests having access to the ballot while also highlighting the economic impacts of any amendments.

All four of these proposals meet Farm Bureau’s policy of supporting proposals that make the constitutional amendment process more deliberative. We are working hard in Tallahassee to see each of them pass.

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