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Amendments get closer to ballot

Proposals to spend more on antismoking education and to make redistricting nonpartisan apparently have the needed signatures.

TALLAHASSEE - A group that wants the state to spend more money on antismoking education and another that thinks drawing political boundaries is a job for an independent commission and not politicians have both apparently collected enough signatures to get proposed constitutional amendments on the November ballot.

State elections officials have verified more than 682,800 signatures collected by Floridians for Youth Tobacco Education, well over the number needed for voters to consider a change to the state Constitution that would set a minimum state spending level for antismoking programs.

The ballot language must still be approved by the state Supreme Court before going before voters. The court decides whether a proposal sticks to a single subject and is clearly worded.

The amendment would require the Legislature each year to spend 15 percent of the money Florida received in 2005 from its settlement with the tobacco industry, adjusted for inflation, on an antitobacco campaign aimed at youths. That would amount to about $54-million a year.

The Legislature set aside $70-million for such a program after the 1998 settlement with the cigarette industry, but the amount has declined to just $1-million in each of the last three years.

The Committee for Fair Elections said it has turned in more than 900,000 signatures, far more than the 611,009 needed to put its proposal on the ballot. On Tuesday, elections supervisors had certified almost 580,000 signatures. The ballot question would ask voters to create a 15-member commission to draw congressional and legislative districts. Members would be selected in a nonpartisan process and would not be able to seek elected office for four years after serving.

Two-thirds of the commissioners would have to agree on the districts, and if they couldn't agree by a deadline, the Supreme Court would draw the boundaries.

Supporters say the need for the measure can be seen in recent elections, where many incumbents for Congress and the Legislature go unchallenged or don't face strong opposition.

Three U.S. representatives, all Republicans from the Miami area, have challenged the proposal: Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and brothers Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart.

The state Supreme Court will hear arguments next month on the initiative's ballot language.

[Last modified January 25, 2006, 00:54:10]