NFIB's Herrle: How is the Constitution Revision Commission trying to change the Florida Constitution?

Date: April 18, 2018

NFIB Members,

By now you’ve caught wind of the workings of the Florida Constitution Revision Commission (CRC) – a group that convenes once every 20 years with the power to place proposed amendments to the Florida Constitution on the 2018 ballot, which goes before the voters in November.

At NFIB, we’ve been watching the activities of the CRC oh so closely, with great appreciation for the potential magnitude of the work of this peculiar process unique to Florida, and how it might impact business owners. I gasped at a moment during the proceedings that went otherwise unnoticed. It had to do with a constitutional amendment that would reinforce the requirement that civics be taught in our public schools. It was a Scribner’s error they were correcting with an amendment. The preamble language noted that Florida was a constitutional democracy. They corrected it to read constitutional republic.

And with that small gesture our Republic was saved, I thought. Who knows what impact it might have if our state constitution framed itself as a democracy rather than a republic?

That small example well describes the power of this body. The CRC wrapped up their work this week, passing eight amendments that will be placed on the 2018 general election ballot. Among these proposals are several that may impact business both directly and indirectly. As we do with any amendments facing voters, NFIB will be sending out a member ballot in the coming weeks asking for your input on several the proposals. But in the meantime, here are some in which we think small business owners will be particularly interested:

Proposal 6001 contains a provision that provides additional rights to victims of crimes, including business owners. This proposal also includes a provision that would allow for judges in agency rule challenges to use the plain reading of a statute instead of the interpretation from the agency being sued. That would represent a significant power shift where state agencies would have much less power in the administrative hearing process for lawsuits brought by businesses and individuals.

Proposal 6004 would ban vaping in enclosed workplaces similar to the existing cigarette smoking ban. This proposal also includes a ban on offshore oil drilling in Florida.

Proposal 6012 would ban the wagering on greyhound racing at any of the dog tracks in Florida.

These eight proposals will be added to the five amendments already slated for the ballot to make for 13 total amendments in November. NFIB will be balloting our members on all of these, and yeah, by the way, we’ll be checking the fine print just to see if anyone overlooked changing our form of government from a constitutional republic to a constitutional democracy!

Bill Herrle
NFIB/Florida Executive Director
[email protected]

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