Panel supports making it harder to pass ballot measures

March 9, 2021

Jim Saunders

TALLAHASSEE --- Continuing efforts to make it harder to change the Florida Constitution, a Senate panel Tuesday backed a controversial proposal that would require approval from two-thirds of voters for ballot measures to pass.

The Senate Ethics and Elections Committee voted 5-3 to approve the proposal (SJR 1238), sponsored by Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez, R-Doral. It would make it harder to amend the Constitution because ballot measures now can be approved with a 60 percent vote.

If lawmakers pass Rodriguez’s proposal during this year’s legislative session, the issue would go before voters in November 2022. That is because increasing the threshold for amending the Constitution would require a constitutional amendment.

Ethics and Elections Chairman Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, said lawmakers would simply give voters a choice about whether they want to make it harder to amend the Constitution.

“We’re not putting this in the Constitution,” Baxley said. “The voters will vote as to whether they want to make this change.”

But Sen. Randolph Bracy, an Ocoee Democrat who serves on the committee, expressed outrage, telling supporters of the proposal that it is a “direct result of constitutional amendments passing that you all don’t like.”

“It is a spit in the face to every voting member of the public,” Bracy said. “And I think we should be ashamed for even putting something like this forward.”

The Republican-controlled Legislature, backed by groups such as the Florida Chamber of Commerce, have moved forward in recent years with a series of changes to make it harder to amend the Constitution.

For example, lawmakers last year passed a controversial measure that included raising the number of petition signatures needed to spur Supreme Court reviews of citizens’ initiatives. Such initiatives need the Supreme Court to sign off on ballot wording before they can move forward.

Voters in 2006 approved a measure that required constitutional amendments to receive 60 percent support to pass, up from the previous majority. That proposal was put on the 2006 ballot by the Legislature.

Supporters of making it harder to change the Constitution argue, in part, that it should be a document that serves as a foundation of government and not a battleground for policy issues better resolved by the Legislature.

Amendments that have passed in recent years have dealt with a wide range of issues, including increasing the state’s minimum wage, restoring voting rights to felons, legalizing medical marijuana, providing money for land and water conservation and banning greyhound racing.

“The Constitution should be a defining document of the relationship between a people and their government,” Baxley said. “It should not be all this policy and budget stuff.”

But opponents of additional restrictions say groups have needed to put measures on the ballot because lawmakers have not responded to the wishes of voters.

A House version of the proposal (HJR 61), filed by Rep. Rick Roth, R-West Palm Beach, has not appeared in committees.