Renewing the annual assault on democracy
For the seventh time in eight years, a Palm Beach County legislator is still trying to make it virtually impossible for voters to amend their Constitution.
You have to give Rep. Rick Roth credit for persistence in trying to suppress citizen participation in democracy in Florida.
Back to his old tricks, backed by the same old powerful business groups, Roth wants to increase the threshold from 60% to 67% for passage of a constitutional amendment.
Roth’s proposal (HJR 335) would impose another giant barrier to direct democracy in Florida, while empowering an even smaller minority of one-third of voters to decide the outcome of a statewide election.
This is a sinister ploy to silence the voices of Floridians in the last place where they still have an impact: at the ballot box.
Much too high a bar
If Roth had his way, Florida would never have raised the minimum wage in 2020, or restored the right to vote to convicted felons (2018), or demanded fairness in how politicians draw congressional and legislative districts (2010).
All three of those are in the constitution after clearing the 60% hurdle, but none reached the lofty 67% that Roth seeks.
Even the wildly popular Save Our Homes amendment, which since 1992 has capped annual assessment increases on homesteaded property at 3%, would never have become law.
Roth’s rationalization for the higher threshold rests on the premise that voters aren’t smart enough to figure out the risks of cluttering up the constitution.
“The real purpose of the constitution is to protect citizens from our own government,” Roth told members of a House subcommittee this week. “So I see raising the bar as making sure that the constitution
continues to protect you.”
Protect us? From what?
Roth’s gobbledygook tells us nothing. He further weakened his case by noting that voters approved a legislative amendment in 2018 that requires a supermajority vote of two-thirds in the House and Senate to impose or raise state taxes or fees.
Guess what? That didn’t reach the 67% threshold, either. It passed by 65.7%.
Florida is already the nation’s most difficult state for citizens to attain ballot access, as Rich Templin of the Florida AFL-CIO reminded lawmakers in a hearing on Monday. The voters approved the 60% threshold nearly two decades ago.
A Florida ballot initiative now requires nearly 1 million valid signatures, which is an exhausting and expensive undertaking. The Legislature has repeatedly made it more difficult by shortening the lifespan of valid signatures and prohibiting petition
circulators from being paid by the signature. (There have been abuses in the signature-gathering process, but a responsible Legislature would promote civic engagement, not try to destroy it.)
A tightly scripted outcome
But in a tightly scripted House, where every Republican-sponsored bill that reaches the calendar is assured of passage, Roth’s fellow Republicans raised no insightful questions and rubber-stamped his bill. (Locally, Rep. Mike Caruso, R-Delray Beach, was among those who voted for it.)
The party-line vote was 11-6, with the no votes cast by five Democrats, joined by Republican Rep. Linda Chaney of St. Pete Beach.
Roth’s latest effort comes as abortion rights supporters are advocating for constitutional protections for women in a state that, with a 15-week abortion ban already in place, passed a six-week ban.
The abortion rights question will be Amendment 4 on the November ballot, but the ballot language still must survive a critical review by the Florida Supreme Court, where oral arguments will be held Feb. 7.
Roth’s own record
As for Roth, the West Palm Beach grower has never come close to winning 67% approval from voters in an election.
In a conservative, rural district stretching across the northern tier of Palm Beach County, he has won four House races with 58, 55, 56 and 60% of the vote against weak opposition. He never came close to reaching the 67% threshold that he wants to impose on others.
Facing term limits in November, Roth has announced plans to run for a state Senate seat.
Roth’s raising of the bar for democracy requires approval from three-fifths of the House and Senate. If it reached the ballot it would require 60% approval from voters. That may appear hypocritical, but that’s the law in Florida.
The good news is that not one senator has filed the same bill, and the 60-day session will reach the midway point next week, so it appears for now that Roth’s record of futility will remain intact. But with this Legislature, you can never be sure.