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JONI JAMES and STEVE BOUSQUETMeasures that would make it harder to amend the state Constitution won't make it onto the primary ballot, House Democrats say.
TALLAHASSEE - House Democrats, usually powerless to stop the Republican agenda, vowed Wednesday to thwart any effort to place questions on the Aug. 31 primary ballot that would make it harder for citizens to amend the state Constitution.
The pledge, coupled with the House unveiling its proposals for changing the way the Constitution is amended, ensured that the issue will be among the toughest to negotiate in the final two weeks of the session.
Democrats in the House said they won't allow the questions on the primary ballot. It takes a three-fourths vote of both chambers, or 90 votes in the House, to put a constitutional amendment on a primary ballot, but only a three-fifths vote to make it part of a general election. With 81 Republicans in the House, nine Democrats would have to cross party lines for the questions to make the primary.
It is unfair to put far-reaching changes on a ballot that historically attracts a small percentage of voters, Democrats said. They also said the primary ballot is ignored by the state's growing pool of independent voters because most ballot issues involve Republicans and Democrats.
"This is a sneaky, back-door attempt to amend the Constitution and to restrict citizens' rights. It's patently unfair," said Rep. Suzanne Kosmas, D-New Smyrna Beach. "We're really concentrating more power in the hands of Tallahassee special interests."
Supporters of an Aug. 31 vote, including some Senate Democrats, say they don't want the issue lost in the presidential election.
The Senate voted overwhelmingly two weeks ago to place on the Aug. 31 ballot three questions: Should all constitutional amendments require a 60 percent approval rate? Should the state Supreme Court have more discretion to reject citizens' initiatives? Should the deadline for qualifying a citizen measure for the ballot be eight months before an election rather than the 90 days now required?
But the full House has yet to concur. Plus, the House is pushing a slightly more ambitious agenda. A House subcommittee Wednesday approved a plan that includes a fourth question. Voters would be asked to require citizen measures that had the potential to cost the state more than $1 per Florida resident - about $16-million - to identify a new tax to fund it. Plus, such measures would require a higher approval rate, two-thirds (66-plus percent) of votes cast, before it would be adopted.
The House also wants to limit the 60 percent approval rate only to citizen measures, not questions submitted by the Legislature. And it wants to shrink from four years to 16 months the amount of time citizens can gather signatures to qualify for the ballot.
The two chambers also differ on defining the Supreme Court's discretion over citizen measures, or when any voter-approved reforms would take effect.
Senate sponsor Rod Smith, D-Alachua, said Wednesday he doesn't see his chamber backing the House plan to require citizen measures to identify a new taxing source. "I'd say we're at about 50-50 whether we get any of this done." Rep. Joe Pickens, R-Palatka, the House sponsor, said: "It may be that there is an impasse on one issue or another and not all of them get on the ballot."