A new statewide survey from the Florida Chamber of Commerce shows voters overwhelmingly support efforts to tighten the state’s process for putting constitutional amendments on the ballot.

The poll found more than three-quarters of voters (76%) would be more likely to support a lawmaker who voted to restrict the constitutional amendment process. That sentiment transcended party lines, with 78% of Republicans and no-party voters saying they would back lawmakers who vote in favor of tightening up the ballot initiative process, compared to 73% of Democrats.

The Chamber poll, released Thursday, did not include survey language, but its rundown of results suggests the failed effort to legalize cannabis for adult use (Amendment 3) is a driving factor. The polling memo specifically references “returning the process to the citizens and taking it out of the hands of special interests.”

“Out of state and special interest groups have attempted to circumvent the Florida Legislature by spending hundreds of millions of dollars pushing amendments to Florida’s Constitution,” Florida Chamber President and CEO Mark Wilson said. “Our poll shows Florida voters want Legislators to return the ballot initiative process to citizens initiatives and not those run by special interests.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis in January suggested changes to the constitutional amendment process as part of his call for a Special Session. In his comments, he pointed not to Amendment 3 and the $150 million spent to support the initiative, but to Amendment 4, the effort to enshrine abortion access into the state constitution.

“To have the amount of fraudulent petitions that were verified as fraudulent … that is a huge, huge problem,” he said at the time, according to Axios. That references DeSantis and his allies’ claims that at least some of the nearly 1 million petition signatures gathered to place the issue on the 2024 ballot were fraudulent.

DeSantis didn’t outline specifics for tightening the process, but it wouldn’t be the first time leaders in Tallahassee have sought to make it harder for anyone but the Legislature to put a question to voters.

The efforts date back to at least 2006 when lawmakers voted to put a referendum on the ballot increasing the threshold for constitutional amendment passage from 50% to 60%. Ironically, the referendum passed with less than the 60% threshold it sought to impose.

More recently, in 2020, lawmakers approved a measure that DeSantis approved to raise the threshold for citizen initiatives to trigger judicial review and prevented petition signatures gathered from being used in a future ballot. Critics at the time argued the measure would leave the process open only to wealthy individuals or deep pocketed special interests, with some nicknaming the measure a “ballot for billionaires.” That’s because it shortened the amount of time campaigns had to raise funds for the onerous petition gathering process.

The year prior, DeSantis led an effort cracking down on the petition gathering process by requiring petition gatherers to be paid by the hour, not by the petition. It also required petitions to include who was sponsoring them and how much was raised by in-state donors, with violations carrying steep fines.

The Chamber poll was taken Feb. 2-8 by Cherry Communications among 600 respondents. It has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

Post Views: 0

For a decade, as a member of the Florida State Senate, I fought against overregulation.

After the passage of the REINS-style state law overhauling our state’s regulatory environment, I worked tirelessly to help usher in some of the major changes that have made our state a better place to live, work, and raise a family.

Now, as President Donald Trump begins his second term, I am proud to see a focus on overregulation take hold in Washington, D.C.

Shortly after the inauguration, Trump signed one of his most important executive orders: a regulatory freeze that halted further rulemaking pending an executive branch review. This was a key step in his deregulation agenda.

Included in the President’s regulatory freeze was a pause on any rulemaking currently underway at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). This pause was especially necessary, because as other agencies had slowed down rulemaking at the end of the Joe Biden era, the CFPB sped up.

Originally formed in 2011, the CFPB has too often strayed from its stated mission of protecting consumers. Under the last administration, it served as a partisan rule-maker that functioned exclusively to help the Democrats. It opted to regulate by enforcement and exceeded its statutory authority, putting consumers and small businesses in harm’s way.

As the Biden administration prepared to leave office, the CFPB ignored the changing of the guard in pursuit of a left-wing agenda that was little more than an assault on small businesses and consumers.

Thankfully, Trump recognized the threat that former CFPB Director Rohit Chopra posed to the administration and fired him. Now, with new leadership in charge, it’s important that the lame-duck, partisan rulemaking be reviewed and repealed if necessary.  

Under the last administration, the CFPB changed the rules of the game when it came to regulating financial institutions. Instead of establishing clear guidelines everyone could follow, the CFPB made rules on the spot and expected companies to comply. The agency adopted a dangerous precedent of regulation by enforcement, punishing institutions for not abiding by rules that the CFPB made up on the spot.

The CFPB’s overreach has created regulatory uncertainty for the institutions it oversees, including banks. The consequences of this uncertainty have trickled down to consumers and small businesses who have paid the ultimate price for overregulation. When financial institutions do not have clear rules of the road, they cannot operate as freely as they would like. Access to capital becomes more difficult than necessary and costs increase.

While most federal agencies slowed down once Trump won in November, the CFPB sped up and attempted to cement its partisan agenda. As the Trump administration was preparing to take over, the CFPB ushered through new regulations on credit card late fees, medical debt, and payment app oversight. All of these issues are outside of its jurisdiction. The rules were nothing more than partisan power grabs in the waning days of the Biden term.

Effective regulation requires clarity, consistency, and most importantly, accountability. The Biden CFPB failed on all fronts. The agency has acted as judge, juror, and executioner on a myriad of cases and hurt the very consumers and small business owners they swore to protect.

The American people deserve better. The last-minute rulemaking and agency actions need to be put under a microscope. In many cases, these partisan rules need to be repealed before they do any further harm.

Change is needed now to correct the misdeeds of the last several years.

___

Former Senator Jeff Brandes is the founder and president of the Florida Policy Project.

Post Views: 0

Florida is the leader in a terrible statistic: More children under the age of 5 die from drowning in the Sunshine State than any other place in the country, according to the Department of Children and Families.

Two Orlando Democrats are pushing legislation to add more pool regulations they hope will save lives.

Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith and Rep. Johanna López filed legislation (SB 604, HB 93) that would require, starting Oct. 1, all residences with swimming pools being sold or having ownership transferred to pass a final inspection to make sure the older pools meet the same safety standards for newly constructed pools.

“We must put an end to the epidemic of preventable child drownings that continue to happen in this state,” Smith said in a statement. “Our proposed pool safety requirements are great tools for drowning prevention, and it is critical we ensure they apply to the sale and transfer of all residential homes, regardless of construction year.”

Under their bill, title companies, inspectors and mortgage underwriters will be required to report any home that fails to meet safety and drowning prevention standards, the lawmakers said.

Current Florida law requires pools to have at least one safety measure in place which includes either a safety pool cover, an exit alarm on the home’s doors or windows leading to the pool or a swimming pool alarm.

López co-sponsored a similar bill last year with Rep. Rita Harris that died in the Regulatory Reform and Economic Development Subcommittee.

“Too many families in Florida have suffered the unimaginable loss of a child due to accidental drowning — an entirely preventable tragedy,” López said. “By refiling HB 93 alongside Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, we are taking a critical step toward strengthening residential pool safety laws, ensuring that every pool has at least one life-saving safety feature.”

Their identical bills were endorsed by Brent Moore, Executive Director of Children’s Safety Village of Central Florida, a nonprofit focused on protecting kids.

“With Florida again leading the nation in unintentional drowning of children under 18 we emphasize the need for heightened safety standards,” Moore said in a statement. “We believe these updated standards reduce drownings, and all homes should have these protections.” 

The Legislature’s Regular Session convenes March 4.

Post Views: 0