Florida Ballot Initiatives

This is a light year for ballot initiatives for the general election in November – only three. The first two are citizens’ initiatives placed on the ballot by gathering voters’ signatures. and the the third is an initiative from the legislature that got 60% of the votes in both houses.

Initiatives require a 60% ‘yes’ vote to pass and amend the Florida constitution. The short version is that I’m voting ‘yes’ on Amendments 1 and 2, and a definite ‘no’ on Amendment 3. After the fold I’ll give you links to the text and a brief explanation of the three Amendments.

Amendment 1, the Florida Water and Land Conservation Initiative requires that 33% of net revenue from the excise tax on documents go to the Land Acquisition Trust Fund. The trust fund was created 50 years ago and has long had bipartisan support. The reason for the change is that the Republican controlled legislature has been using the money that would normally be added to the fund to cover their deficit spending.

Amendment 2, the Florida Right to Medical Marijuana Initiative allows physicians to prescribe marijuana for the treatment of debilitating diseases. The research has shown that marijuana can be an effective treatment for the symptoms of several diseases, and this amendment makes it available.

Amendment 3, the Florida Prospective Judicial Vacancies Amendment would allow the governor to appoint new supreme court justices before their terms expire. This is aimed squarely at the 2019 election cycle. Three supreme court justices will be forced into retirement and the Republicans want the outgoing governor to appoint the new justices, rather than the possibly new governor. They assumed that Rick Scott would win re-election this year, and want him to appoint the three justices, rather than a possible incoming Democratic governor. Florida governors are limited to two terms.