Expect debate over Amendment 4 to help heat up Florida’s already-hot summer.
The amendment will be on the ballot on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 2. If approved by a 60-percent majority statewide, the constitutional amendment will allow Floridians to veto changes to their community-growth master plans that have been approved by local officials.
Amendment 4 organizer Lesley Blackner said the amendment will give Floridians the opportunity to prevent overdevelopment and sprawl, and also give them some control over their communities’ future.
Proposed by Blackner’s Hometown Democracy organization, Amendment 4 has jumped a number of legal hurdles on its way to the November finish line.
“The people who run the state don’t want people to be able to vote on these important decisions,” Blackner said.
One hurdle was a law allowing voters to revoke their signatures on petitions like the one that put Amendment 4 on the ballot.
The Supreme Court struck down the statute eight months ago on a 4-2 vote, but just released an opinion explaining the decision, saying the law would have gutted Florida’s citizen-initiative procedure.
The signature-revocation law was passed by an unfriendly Legislature that favors developers, Blackner said. It was used in an attempt to defeat Amendment 4, which had garnered enough signatures to earn its spot on the ballot.
Signers of the Hometown Democracy petition later received ominous-sounding letters suggesting the signers had been misled about the amendment, and encouraging them to request that their signatures be revoked.
The court said the revocation law favored opponents of constitutional-amendment campaigns. People could be “duped and misled by a partisan letter into revoking their signatures only to later discover that they would face potential criminal prosecution if they attempted to re-sign.”
Challengers have until March 10 to ask that the Supreme Court’s decision be reheard or reconsidered.
Attorney Ross Burnaman, Florida Hometown Democracy co-chairman, who drafted Amendment 4, thinks that is unlikely.
“The opinion was detailed,” Burnaman said.
Amendment 4 still faces opposition.
A group called Floridians for Smarter Growth tried to get a counter-initiative on the November ballot, but failed to get enough signatures.
Opponents have now turned their attention to campaigning against Amendment 4, under the name Citizens for Lower Taxes and a Stronger Economy.
Ryan Houck, former executive director of Floridians for Smarter Growth, is now executive director of the new group.
Houck said Amendment 4 would cost Florida $4 billion in lost economic opportunities and $267,000 jobs. He referenced a study by The Washington Economics Group of Coral Gables, which is available at the “Vote No” Web site, www.florida2010.org.
Houck said the threat to jobs is why business groups oppose Amendment 4.
Growth is at the heart of the debate. Houck’s group believes Florida’s economy will wither without it. Blackner’s group believes growth will destroy the assets that give Florida’s economy a fighting chance.
“Rising taxes, falling home values, gridlocked roads, dwindling water supplies and Florida’s disappearing beauty are just some of the devastating consequences of Florida politicians’ habit of rubber-stamping speculative plan changes,” declares the Hometown Democracy Web site.
