BlogWood: MT Archives

Leery lawmakers’ licentiousness leads to legislative logjam

Those darn citizen initiatives... always cluttering up the ballot with way too many choices. Oh, wait...

They argue that the process is out of control. That citizens' initiatives are choking the state budget. That it's too easy for the people to amend their constitution.

Florida politicians have been making the case for constitutional amendment reform ever since a handful of high- profile citizens' campaigns bypassed them in the past few election cycles.

Indeed, voters may have to sift through as many as 16 ballot questions when they go to the polls to elect a president and other officials this November.

But don't blame out-of-control special interests or gadflies manipulating the system. Three-fourths of those ballot questions are being generated by lawmakers themselves.

While they plot to restrict citizens' ability to force change, lawmakers are moving several bills in the waning days of the legislative session that will require a public vote on their own ideas, from homestead exemptions to state budget policy.

``Unquestionably, legislatures have been far greater offenders of putting things on the ballot than the citizens,'' says Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, who opposes efforts to rein in the public's ballot box power. ``It's ironic to me that they are trying to protect citizens from themselves, when they ought to be protecting citizens from the legislators.''