In the minds of some Florida lawmakers, the November 2002 vote to add a on ban pig gestation crates to that state’s Florida constitution is the latest example of the need for reform on Florida’s initiative process.
Florida has one of the easier provision for amending the state constitution. Getting a constitutional amendment on the ballot is relatively easy and once there a constitutional amendment requires only a simple majority to approve.
As a result, Florida’s constitution is littered with laws that have proven unenforceable and which would have little chance of making it as constitutional amendments in other states. There is, for example, a constitutional amendment that requires Florida to provide high speed rail service between Miami, Orlando and Tampa. During the same election that saw the approval of the pig gestation crate ban, another constitutional amendment set maximum class sizes in Florida schools.
Florida state Senate President Jim King (R) told United Press International that, “The pregnant pig issue was the straw that broke the camel’s back for most of us.”
That feeling was helped along by the fact that rather than try to comply with the bill, the two farmers who actually would have been covered by the new requirement chose instead to slaughter all of their pigs and get out of the business.
The major focus of reform bills would require supermajorities of two-thirds or even three-fifths of voters to approve a constitutional amendment at the ballot box before it would become law.
Source:
Florida citizen initiatives to be limited. United Press International, March 31, 2003.