TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Medical marijuana, a $15 minimum wage, smaller class sizes and guaranteed funding for land conservation projects are all policies that started as citizen initiatives and were approved and put into the state constitution by voters.
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But Republican lawmakers argue those are all issues the Legislature should deal with and new legislation would seek to prohibit voters from interjecting policy issues into the state constitution moving forward.
Supporters of the joint resolution argue its goal is to keep the constitution clean and free of policy issues.
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Rep. Mike Beltran (R-Valrico) believes special interest groups are interjecting policy matters into Florida’s constitution by exploiting the citizen initiative process.
“Some policy matters may be good, some policy matters might not be good, but these type of policy matters are best resolved in the Legislature,” said Beltran.
He’s sponsoring the joint resolution that seeks to drastically limit what topics citizen initiatives cover.
Essentially, if it’s already in the constitution, it’s fair game.
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But if it isn’t, Beltran said it would be off limits.
“Other policy matters, however pressing or important or meritorious, would be addressed to the Legislature and if the Legislature doesn’t do its job or it doesn’t do what the people want it to do then they have redress every two years at election time,” said Beltran.
Aliki Moncrief with the Florida Conservation Voters sees it very differently.
“This is basically about limiting the power of people to raise important public policies and important public issues that they don’t feel the Legislature is considering. So, it’s horrible in a word,” said Moncrief.
Her organization helped get the water and land amendment on the ballot in 2014.
“As I read this bill, the water and land amendment would not have passed muster,” said Moncrief.
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But since Beltran’s proposal would have to be approved by voters, she’s hopeful Floridians won’t vote against their own self-interest.
“If the people really wanted this done, they would have done it,” said Moncrief.
And Moncrief points out, state lawmakers have attempted to amend the constitution far more often that Florida citizens.
Over the past five decades the Legislature has put over 190 changes on the ballot, while only 44 citizen initiatives have made it before voters.