TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida Republicans are once again trying to make it more difficult for citizens to amend the state constitution through petition drives, this time by limiting contributions to political committees proposing a ballot initiative.
A bill setting the limit was approved by the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee on a party-line vote Tuesday. Political committees seeking to change the constitution would be limited to $3,000 individual contributions until their proposal is approved for the ballot — a limit that could have made it impossible for medical marijuana and an increase in minimum wage to get before voters.
Medical marijuana was approved by voters in 2016 and a gradual increase of the minimum wage to $15 an hour was approved last year. Trial lawyer John Morgan spent millions of dollars of his own money to get the items on the ballots. Republicans in the Legislature opposed those issues.
“The minimum wage...yes, a Floridian, John Morgan, spent $6 million of his own money to try to get that passed because we couldn't get it done at the Legislature,” said Democratic Sen. Annette Taddeo. “We don't listen to the voters. The voters have told us time and time again, ‘These are the things we want you to do,’ and yet we turn around and do exactly the opposite.”
But Republicans say they want to eliminate out-of-state money from contributing to changes in the constitution, and that many items approved by voters should be legislative issues, not constitutional issues.
“National and out-of-state political groups are not committed to Florida, but to their own special interests,” said Republican Sen. Ray Rodrigues, the bill's sponsor. “This proposal reinstates the experience, the integrity and the authenticity of the citizens initiative process.”
Last year Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill that raised the threshold for the number of signatures needed for a petition to be reviewed by the Supreme Court for inclusion on the ballot from 10% of required signatures to 25%.
In 2019, DeSantis signed a bill that requires paid petition gatherers to register with the secretary of state, outlaws paying gatherers based on the number of signatures they collect and creates fines if petitions are not turned in within 30 days. The petitions now also have to have the name and permanent address of the gatherer.
Separately, Republicans are also seeking a ballot measure that would ask voters to raise the threshold to pass a constitutional amendment from 60% of the votes cast to two-thirds.