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Senate leaders discuss paring down Constitution

The Judiciary Committee chairman says extra amendments complicate governing.

Associated Press
Published December 2, 2004

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TALLAHASSEE - A state Senate leader said Wednesday he wants to streamline the Florida Constitution to a pure document that only deals with the structure of government and the rights of citizens.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Dan Webster said he presented his idea to Senate President Tom Lee, who responded enthusiastically. Webster told his committee at a meeting Wednesday he wasn't talking about writing a brand new Constitution.

"I don't believe pregnant pigs should be in the Constitution," said Webster, R-Winter Garden, referring to a 2002 citizen initiative that voters approved banning the use of small gestation crates for expectant swine.

Nearly 55 percent of the voters approved putting that in the Florida Constitution, a fact that has caused much angst in the state Capitol. Lawmakers also have been vocal in their disapproval of a class size reduction measure, which voters also approved in 2002.

Last month voters approved eight amendments to the state Constitution, including two the Legislature put on the ballot. Webster said he didn't know which ones might be considered appropriate and which ones unconstitutional in scope.

"Every time these amendments come up, we struggle with what they mean," he said.

To explain his idea, he pointed to guidelines that lawmakers discussed in the spring when they made changing the constitutional amendment process a priority.

Ultimately, the two key proposals failed to make it out of the Legislature. One would have limited the subject matter that could be handled by petition drive to the basic structure of government or fundamental rights of citizens. The other proposal would have required a higher passage threshold for proposed constitutional amendments, which now need only a simple majority of 50 percent plus one.

Sixty percent of the Legislature needs to approve a proposed constitutional amendment to put it on the ballot.

In the House, state Rep. Joe Pickens, a Palatka Republican who has been a leader on constitutional amendment issues, said asking voters to approve a streamlined state Constitution was "certainly an option."

But Pickens said lawmakers in the House are focusing now on prekindergarten and hurricane relief issues expected to come up in a special session later this month.

He said the House would revisit the issue of constitutional amendments in the regular two-month session, which begins in March.

[Last modified December 2, 2004, 00:06:22]

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