Don’t let legislators rip away your voice

Who’s in charge in a democracy? The people or the politicians?

The answer to that eternal question is going badly in Florida.

Voters accustomed to a longer ballot will face only three constitutional amendments on Nov. 8, all put there by the Legislature, none by initiative petitions.

The Legislature and the lobbies that jerk its chains are effectively repealing the people’s right to propose and ratify their own constitutional reforms.

The voter initiative form of people power has succeeded 31 times to adopt what the Florida Legislature would not, including such significant measures as setting a state minimum wage and raising it, banning smoking in workplaces, curbing gerrymandering, banning commercial net fishing, establishing term limits on the Legislature and the Cabinet, limiting tax increases, forbidding the Legislature to authorize casino gambling without a statewide referendum, legalizing medical marijuana, limiting class sizes in public schools, and requiring public officials to disclose their assets, debts and income. Eleven initiatives failed at the polls.

Currently, a circuit judge has invoked the “Fair Districts” initiatives, adopted in 2010, to block the racist gerrymander by Gov. Ron DeSantis that would eliminate Democratic Rep. Al Lawson’s district and leave 345,000 Black voters across North Florida with no voice in Washington.

That decision will be reviewed by a state Supreme Court made fiercely right-wing by DeSantis appointments. Florida needs an initiative to restore the independence of the appellate bench, which most former governors respected.

It’s problematic, however, whether there can ever be another successful initiative. In what democracy advocates liken to “a death of a thousand cuts,” the Legislature has repeatedly acted to cripple the process. The most telling obstacle so far requires sponsors to pay professional solicitors by the hour rather than by how many petition signatures they gather. Only two initiatives, at most, have ever succeeded by depending on volunteers.

A law enacted last year to further cripple the process set a $3,000 ceiling on contributions during the signature-gathering phase of an initiative campaign, by far the more expensive part. After a federal judge ruled it unconstitutional, the Legislature this year passed another applying the ceiling only to donations from out of state. It’s just as unconstitutional, and hypocritical as well for not applying to the political committees fronting for DeSantis and other Florida politicians. But it hasn’t been overturned yet.

The Legislature has also limited the validity of signatures to the next scheduled general election, rather than to the next two as it once was. This will compel determined sponsors to restart the process from scratch, including a second Supreme Court review.

Few of the politicians making this relentless assault are old enough to know why this form of people power needs to exist.

For several generations, an archaic constitutional formula gave control of the Legislature to an ever-shrinking rural constituency. Eventually, fewer than 20% of Floridians could elect majorities in both houses.

Gov. LeRoy Collins (1955-61) fought six years for a fairer apportionment, but could not break the Legislature’s stranglehold on the Constitution. It took the U.S. Supreme Court to do it.

A reapportioned Legislature liberated the voters through the new constitution of 1968, which brought to Florida the initiative process, long established in other states. It also provided for an appointed commission to review the entire constitution every 20 years. (A third new provision allowing a constitutional convention hasn’t been invoked and probably shouldn’t be.)

The first two commissions did good work. The third, in 2018, performed poorly overall but it did stiffen the ethics code by extending from two years to six the ban on ex-legislators becoming paid lobbyists. Now, the Legislature is asking the voters to abolish the commission. That’s Amendment 2 on the November ballot. It deserves overwhelming defeat.

The constitution also enhanced people power by giving home rule to cities and counties, ending their dependence on the aptly named “local bill evil” in Tallahassee. “The best government is that closest to the people” was a mantra dear to both parties.

No longer. As directed by the Republican leadership, the Legislature has been erasing home rule whenever some powerful special interests ring the cash register. One law overrode the voters of Key West who had barred large cruise ships. A bill (SB 620) awaiting DeSantis signature or veto would entitle businesses to recover lost profits attributed to new ordinances.

The Legislature’s hostility to initiatives was seeded by Gov. Reubin Askew’s “Sunshine Amendment” of 1976 that enacted a stricter ethics code, including financial disclosure. Askew went to the people after the Legislature refused to pass a stronger one.

It was the first successful initiative, and also the next to last accomplished entirely by volunteers gathering signatures. The Legislature responded by trying to ban signature-gathering near polling places, the best of all venues to find registered voters. The law now prohibits any solicitations within 150 feet of a voting station.

Initiative campaigns were easier then. The valid signature requirement, 8% of the most recent presidential vote statewide and in at least half the congressional districts, meant Askew needed barely 200,000 signatures, which he barely made in time. Now, the magic number is nearly 900,000. It’s considered unachievable without paid solicitors. The 2010 “Fair Districts” amendments, for example, cost their sponsors $9.1 million.

The legislative enemies of people power shed crocodile tears over exposing the Constitution to poorly drafted changes that would be more suitable as statutes, but they refuse to let laws be written by initiative as 21 other states allow.

The Florida Legislature has made itself an implacable enemy of people power. The voters should have no use for politicians who have so little respect for them. The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney, and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.