Florida has a constitutional change method where the citizens make the final approval decision. Legislators and citizens propose amendments. A commission picks a few lucky winners. A 60% majority citizen’s vote then determines which get added to the Florida constitution.
Several problems exist with the commission’s selection.
First, the majority of the proposals should be legislation, rather than constitutional changes. Most do not define the form of a constitutional republic such as Florida.
Secondly, the commission chose to bundle proposals into single voting decisions. This is often used by the tricky U.S. Congress to get unpopular bills passed. They combine bad bills with a popular one, predicting that few Congressmen would risk voting against the popular one. The result is that both pass.
The Florida amendment proposals range from dog rules and banning vaping to inventing “rights” and making new taxes more difficult to enact.
It was easy to determine my vote on each. If it was appropriate for the definition of a constitutional republic and I agreed it was justified, then I voted Yes. Otherwise, I voted No.
I didn’t spend time pondering proposals that should be legislation. Many I would be against as legislation anyway, as they are infringements on our liberty.
Amendment 5 got my Yes vote. It requires a 2/3 legislative majority to add or raise a tax. That's a good idea, because it makes any new tax harder to enact.
This amendment would be wonderful for the U.S. Constitution also, because it would make it more difficult for D.C. to invent new ways to take our money. Evidently that is far too easy now.
Federal constitutional amendments imposing fiscal responsibility on D.C. is being pursued by the Convention of States movement. Their resolution has been passed by 12 states so far.
Please have a look at our website if you are interested in reining in D.C.
