Cede your right to elect officials? Vote yes on Amendment 10: Protects Vote no on Amendment 10: Bundling citizens’ power to choose its officers of issues detracts from a good idea

supervisor of elections. Amendment 10 simply would ensure that home rule is not abused. Constitutional officers create a much-needed bridge between the state of Florida and all 67 counties. This guarantees transparency and accountability. The “home” should be ruled by its citizens.

Bundling multiple issues into one amendment, we can all agree, is not easy for the voter, but it makes sense in this case. Amendment 10 would protect you, your family, your tax dollars and our military veterans. Besides ensuring constitutional officers are elected, Amendment 10 would do the following:

It would create the Office of Domestic Security and Counterterrorism within the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. This group will provide essential support for law-enforcement agencies to prevent or respond to acts of terrorism.

It would preserve the structure and governance of the Department of Veterans Affairs to support the changing needs of Florida’s military veterans. Florida’s 1.5 million veterans would be assured that they will be cared for after their service to our country. This is a promise that Florida’s veterans will always have the services they need and deserve.

It would protect tax dollars by providing counties more time to implement state spending by passing a budget two months earlier. It would improve state and county budgeting by starting the Legislature’s annual session in January of even-numbered years.

We respect the decision of the electorate that put us in office to serve them, and we believe our colleagues throughout the state of Florida should be allowed to continue doing just that — as constitutional officers. Amendment 10 would protect Florida citizens’ ability to determine who will serve as the officials who have the most direct effect on their lives.

Amendment 10 would not raise taxes or increase the size of government. Amendment 10 is something we can all agree on, with bipartisan support throughout the state. Florida TaxWatch, for example, recently announced its full support of Amendment 10. As an independent, nonpartisan government watchdog for more than one third of a century, TaxWatch works to improve the accountability of Florida government, and this is one amendment that is a positive addition for voters and families.

To learn more about Amendment 10 before this November’s General Election, please visit Amendment10.org.

Save My Constitution is a coalition of about 20 former Florida legislators dedicated to preserving and protecting the Florida Constitution. While we are no longer in office, the oath we all took to support and defend our constitution still looms large in our collective conscience.

Basically, the Florida Constitution Revision Commission is an unelected body of lobbyists, with no accountability and no checks or balances, attempting to amend our constitution with politically charged proposals that, for the most part, do not even belong in our constitution.

Conducting their business under the heavy influence of special-interest groups, the CRC has put forth a multitude of confusing, intentionally misleading and suspiciously bundled amendments in an attempt to gain our support for the commission’s hidden agenda.

Because of this mischief, we feel it is our obligation and duty to fairly warn Floridians about what is going on and encourage them to vote no on all CRC amendments, including Amendment 10.

The CRC succeeded in putting an assortment of unnecessary amendments on our ballot. However, the damage will occur only if any of the amendments get enough votes and end up in our constitution.

Case in point, Amendment 10 is a conglomerate of unrelated smokescreen proposals designed to lull unsuspecting voters into supporting their real political objective buried deep in the same amendment.

The CRC’s first proposal requires the legislative session to begin in January of election years. This simply is not needed. The Legislature has already been doing this for almost 10 years. This dubious maneuver proves the CRC is only pretending to be concerned about ballot fatigue.

Secondly, the CRC wants to create a Department of Veterans Affairs in our constitution, despite the fact that we already have a fully functional Department of Veterans Affairs, of which I was once the executive director.

The commission argues this is necessary to protect the department from being eliminated. That is an insincere claim. There is an absolute zero chance that any governor or Legislature would ever propose eliminating this honorable and much-needed department.

The CRC is using our veterans as a decoy to capture our vote for its political gain. As a veteran myself, I actually find this tactic appalling.

Next, the CRC wants to require the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to have a counterterrorism bureau. Again, it’s not needed.

Since 9-11, FDLE has had an Office of Domestic Security that works with federal, state and local officials to prevent and respond to acts of terrorism, and seven Regional Domestic Security Task Forces strategically located around the state to coordinate the efforts of first responders.

Once more, the CRC is taking advantage of our concern over terrorism and the good will that we have for our law enforcement, in order to shamelessly gain our support for another more controversial issue.

What the CRC is really after is support for a heavily lobbied issue regarding county governments. This controversial issue, embedded in Amendment 10, would force all counties to elect, rather than appoint, their sheriff, tax collector, property appraiser, supervisor of elections and clerk of courts.

This issue undermines the principle of home rule and, in essence, this matter should be left for the counties to decide for themselves, as they do now.

In any case, if this issue is so important and a really good idea, why didn’t the CRC let it stand alone on its own merit, instead of surrounding it with a bunch of other unrelated feel-good ideas? The truth is, this amendment was sparked by pure politics.

Bottom line: Voters should not be pawns in the CRC political games. What may sound good is probably not. To protect and save our constitution, we strongly encourage all Floridians to vote no on 10.