Environmental amendment won’t come before voters

TALLAHASSEE — After drawing widespread opposition from business and agriculture groups, a proposal to redefine legal standing for Floridians on environmental issues won’t go before voters in November.

The Judicial Committee of the Florida Constitution Revision Commission on Friday unanimously rejected the proposal (P 23), filed by commission member Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch, with opponents saying it was too broad.

Thurlow-Lippisch, a former mayor of Sewall’s Point, admitted after the meeting that while the proposal may be “a little extreme,” she will continue to work on improving it as a citizens’ initiative.

Under the proposal, “any person” would have a right to clean air and water, which includes the ability to “enforce this right against any party, public or private, subject to reasonable limitations, as provided by law.”

The “any person” language is what raised critics’ hackles.

Commissioner Tom Lee, a Republican state senator from Thonotosassa, described the proposal as “a radical departure from a balance of rights that exists currently in our Constitution.”

Currently, people must show they are “substantially” affected to challenge state permits.

Former state Sen. Arthenia Joyner, a lawyer and commission member from Tampa, encouraged Thurlow-Lippisch to keep working on the proposal, which was inspired by Treasure Coast students. “If there was a way that we could carve language out that would actually have some standards that could be measurable, and it would not be open to anyone’s definitions and standards, that’s the challenge,” said Joyner, a former Senate Democratic leader.

Thurlow-Lippisch said she hopes the students who first proposed the idea won’t give up on it.

“Sometimes you have to make extreme changes to have considerable benefits,” she said.

The Constitution Revision Commission meets every 20 years and can place proposed constitutional amendments directly on the 2018 ballot.