Wednesday, the Pensacola News Journal editorial board came out four-square against ballot initiative No. 3, which would make it "harder to pass constitutional amendments." It's a welcome change of position for the newspaper, as the News Journal confesses:
"We have supported similar proposals in the past, but the parade of large special interests pushing this amendment gives us pause, and we agree with the League of Women Voters of Florida that the petition process is important.As the editorial acknowledges, Florida lags behind more progressive states that allow "voters, through a simple majority, to create state statutes." Instead, the only referendum power allowed under current Florida law is a voter-initiated amendment to the constitution.
Wouldn't you know it? The same legislature that doesn't want the people empowered to initiate state laws that the legislature won't pass on its own, now wants to restrict the initiative power of the people to adopt constitutional amendments.
The News Journal is getting smarter. The Florida legislature isn't. As the St. Petersburg Times has editorialized, Florida legislators "just want to make it harder for citizens to overrule their Legislature."
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