Column: Power to the people, right on, court rules

My print column today is about a new court ruling in favor of the Hometown Democracy movement -- the court struck down the law passed last year that allows voters to change their mind and revoke petition signatures once they have been signed.

The text of the column follows. Here's a copy of the court ruling: Download ruling.pdf

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Here is how it works in Florida:

If enough citizens sign a petition, they can put a proposed amendment to the state Constitution on the ballot.

The Constitution says so.

Here is the tricky part. The rules do not say that only "good" people get to petition, or only "smart" people, or only people that you or I like.

Nope. In fact, the chances are excellent that sooner or later, an idea that you personally cannot stand will reach the Florida ballot. It happens to me all the time.

When that happens, do you:

(1) Accept the fact that not everyone in a democracy agrees with you, and campaign to win the election?

Or do you:

(2) Keep trying to change the rules to make it harder for the people to get ideas on the ballot and passed at all?

This being Florida, we have opted for (2). And so in recent years our Legislature has adopted several ideas to crack down on petitions.

It now takes 60 percent of the vote for an amendment to pass. Used to be 50 percent.

The citizens now have to submit their signatures by Feb. 1 of an election year, and as we recently saw, even that is no guarantee that the government will count them.

We have a "price tag," so when amendments that cost anything are on the ballot, a government committee produces a ballot warning of how much it will cost.

Fair enough. In fact, the voters themselves approved all those ideas.

But one idea that the Legislature passed last year went too far — and on Wednesday, a state court struck it down.

The Legislature created a new process in which citizens could change their mind and revoke their signatures.

As predicted, that change in the law created a whole new cottage industry. Groups fighting petitions got a second bite at the apple — they could contact petition signers and try to scare or fool them into filling out a revocation form.

You might remember the funniest example, concerning the Hometown Democracy movement, which sought to limit growth. Its opponents sent out a letter warning voters that the amendment would give too much power to a suspicious, mysterious group known as "electors."

Of course, "electors" simply means "voters." It was a stupid trick to fool people.

The Hometown Democracy movement, which did not get enough signatures to make this year's ballot, sued to have the new law overturned. And on Wednesday, the First District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee agreed the law was unconstitutional.

The right of the people to petition is created in the Constitution. The court's ruling said, in essence, this means that the Legislature does not get to monkey around with it.

The Legislature is limited to making sure the process works correctly and the integrity of the ballot is ensured — verifying signatures and that sort of thing.

Maybe the Florida Supreme Court will end up hearing the case and deciding otherwise, but I think this was the right call. Otherwise the Legislature could keep right on inventing new obstacles.

Besides, if the Legislature thinks that having a revocation process is such a great idea, it can always do the same thing that the citizens can do:

Put it on the ballot as a proposed amendment, and let the voters themselves decide whether it's a good idea. As all them hippies used to say in the '60s: Power to the people, right on.

Comments

[Larry]

The legislature has done, and will continue, to thwart the will of the people as best they can. They've made it tougher for citizen's initiatives to get on the ballot to stifle the voice of the people. I honestly do not understand what happens to people's brains when they get in "the club" for two terms. I'm actually starting to think that maybe one term is enough. After all, we would have been rid of Rubio earlier. Can we get a citizen's initiative started for that?

All I 'gotta say is YEAH LESLEY BLACKNER!! The woman is tireless...it's the ONLY way to win against the powers that be........NEVER give up the fight....because it's our right.

Lorraine

[Kathleen]

Simply remember that a "super majority" is really "minority rule".

[Jon]

I hope all the high dudgeon about the disenfranchising and de-voicing of citizens by our government keeps in mind the antics of our own City Council. Don't lose sight of their hiding their “pre-meetings” with the Rays Boys before the last Council election, flat-out lying about the designation of Al Lang Park, and the present dribbling out of little tidbits of all the pieces that will ultimately make up the Great Stadium Robbery.

We are apparently accustomed, and maybe resigned, to being “had” by our elected leaders, given the frequency and brazenness of their assaults on common sense and the common good.

[Don Mott]

Jon, I sometimes feel that way when I see what our legislature is doing to our state. I can't keep up with all of the nonsense, lies and rhetoric. But I try. Maybe you have a point there.

[Jon McPhee]

Don, don't want to start a private conversation, but: -- The price of freedom may be eternal vigilance. But average citizens are so squeezed by the predatory pricing of necessities, like fuel and food and shelter, and stagnant and declining wages, that they don’t have much liberty to keep watch. That's why people like Mr. Troxler, and the other folks who study and digest and report on the nitty-gritty of hee-haws like the Great Stadium Giveaway and the shenanigans of our legislatures and executives and courts, are so important. They help us identify the "domestic enemies," and keep perspective on the foreign ones.

Many of us still succumb to the sucker punches of the Slick Willies who’ve mastered the manipulation of the reactive symbols in our minds, from "flag pins" to "bitterness" to “un-American” to "secular humanist" to pipe dreams of "revitalization." Mostly, it’s because we haven’t got time or energy to keep watching that sneaky guy behind the curtain. So we even end up voting seriously against our interests, even if it’s for the candidates of the "base" folks in the McMansions and hedge funds who bleed the nation’s wealth, just a pint or two at a time, until we are drained dry.

Ask a dedicated teacher or fireman in Pinellas County what effect land speculation and tax bubbles and rocketing fuel prices (also much driven by speculation – "futures trading," which used to be a crime long ago) has on him or her. But the people who price the necessities know they can keep 'em creeping up, because we chumps just tighten our belts and shrink our lives and keep on keeping on. While they just sneer at our placidity and gullibility.

All I can say is, remember Marie Antoinette, and what happened after she told the starving masses to "eat cake." It’s not pretty when the social contract gets breached. And what happens when half the country is well-armed but unregulated?

[Don in St. Pete]

Until the State of Florida switches to a more reliable, predictable and less volatile method of raising funds than sales and property taxes alone, we will be stuck with the same corrupt way of doing business which is to promote, steamroll and hasten development in any way possible. A Statewide income tax would do the job and would lower property taxes to a level where retirees and senior citizens weren't deciding between buying food and medication. Let some of these rich pro athletes and corporate Ceo's pay some taxes for a change. We would be far less beholden to the ebb and flow of the construction market and the econcomy.

[Jim]

In your column you wrote, "The Legislature created a new process in which citizens could change their mind and revoke their signatures. As predicted, that change in the law created a whole new cottage industry. Groups fighting petitions got a second bite at the apple - they could contact petition signers and try to scare or fool them into filling out a revocation form."

Too bad we can't fill out a "revocation form" for our legislators!