election 2006 florida constitutional amendments
tommyThere are six amendments to the Florida Constitution on the ballot. To get an overview of the reasons for supporting or opposing each amendment, I recommend you check with Vote Smart Florida. They list the amendments, and give both sides of the argument for you to make up your own mind. They claim to be non-partisan, but most of the partners are chambers of commerce and other business interests.
Tribune says vote yes on 1, and no on all others. Likewise, the St. Pete Times says vote yes on number one, but no on the rest of them, especially Amendment #3.
UPDATE 3:38pm: The State of Sunshine has a nicely written explanation why you should vote NO on Amendment one.
I agree with both newspapers (a quick explanation in parenthesis):
- Yes on Amendment 1 - State Planning & Budget - Yes (will help keep budget straight)
- No on Amendment 3 - Broader public support for amendments - No (your voice is important, and must be heard)
- No on Amendment 4 - Protection from Tobacco - No (there is no need for this in the constitution)
- No on Amendment 6 - Increased Homestead Exemption - No (the exemption should be tied to a percentage, not a dollar amount)
- No on Amendment 7 - Veterans discounted homestead exemption - No (again, there are other ways to address this without changing the constitution)
- No on Amendment 8 - Eminent Domain - No (this quick fix is not the answer)
I encourage you to respond and make your arguments for any of the above…
Tags: election '06, Florida, state, tampa
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November 6th, 2006 at 1:03 pm
hmmm… your reasoning against amendment 4 makes your reasoning against amendment 3 suspect. yes, our voices are important, but you can pass laws without amending the constitution. the reason we don’t have ridiculous laws in the U.S. Constitution is because of similar safeguards. If you don’t want stuff in the Constitution about pig farming and tobacco regulation, too bad, because as long as a simple majority can amend it, the junk will keep on coming.
November 6th, 2006 at 1:23 pm
Yeah but I have a problem with an amendment that further limits any right. Part of why I would oppose a gay marriage amendment is that the constitution and its amendments are typically intended to garantee our rights, not limit them.
November 6th, 2006 at 1:25 pm
And on #8 I thought after the supreme court verdict we found that Florida already had restrictions on this.
November 6th, 2006 at 4:00 pm
I’ll have to disagree with your opinion on Amendment 3 - yes, our voices are important, and they must be heard, but that is what the ballot box is for.
The minimum number of signatures required to place an initiative on the ballot is 8 percent of the total votes of the last election. This is easily accomplished by “big business” consultants who brag that given $2 million, they can get any initiative on the ballot (you should see their marketing materials).
Once the signatures are accumulated and verified, the initiative is only reviewed for formatting by the AG, verification of the signatures, and compliance with the constitution by the Supreme Court. This circumvents the legislature’s entire deliberation process - we only get to hear about these initiatives thru media and advertising, not through the structured open debate and committee review that other initiatives, amendments, or bills endure. There is a reason why these things should be and are debated openly - instead of reduced to sound bites.
Another problem with the “citizen’s initiative” is that the cost of the programs are never fully disclosed - even the Financial Impact Statement that appears on the ballot can be misleading. Not all impacts are explicitly financial, nor are they listed - q.v. The Law of Unintended Consequences.
And how much time did you spend with the last signature gatherer you met? Did you feel like you were able to get to the heart of the matter with them in the five minutes before signing? If you took five minutes to try to understand the initiative, you probably spent 4 and a half more than the average citizen. Did they tell you who sponsored the amendment? Where their funds come from? Ask them these questions and they might just leave you alone and find someone else that’s a little easier to work with - after all, they get paid by the signature. Approximately one quarter of all signatures collected for each initiative are junked for multiple reasons - they just keep trying until they get enough.
My final objection to your No vote on #3 is that the dangers of direct democracy on a large scale are pretty apparent: “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until a majority of voters discover that they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury.” Despite the fuzziness of the origin of that quote, it is pretty clear to me that “citizens’” initiatives are nothing more than another vehicle for special interest groups to legislate our lives, and vote themselves largess.
November 6th, 2006 at 5:41 pm
Tommy…
State of Sunshine has written about all amendments… and we just happen to recommend voting no on all of them.
Amendment 1
Amendment 3
Amendment 4
Amendments 6 & 7
Amendment 8
November 7th, 2006 at 10:47 am
Tommy:
Wrote up an explanation on the amendments myself, although I disagree with a few items. I did, however, break the amendments down to layman’s terms (which means taking the Vote Smart Florida guide and simplifying even that.)
Amendments Explained
The same article (which is broken up into a few pages, use the “contents” menu at the top) includes explanations of who’s running for public office in general (as in “applicable to most of Florida”) including Governor, Attorney General, CFO, etc.