When you go to the voting precinct this week, you might notice a group of six amendments waiting for you. Just don’t let the numbering confuse you. Two of the amendments were removed, and someone decided not to change the numbering.
Sometimes I think government officials just like to confuse people.
Regardless, there is one amendment that I think needs to be given another look: Amendment 4.
Essentially, if passed, Amendment 4 would allow voters to decide on any new local land plans or changes to local land plans rather than city councils.
The group that put this on the ballot, “Florida Hometown Democracy,” wants to put more power into the voters’ hands when it comes to making community decisions.
At first glance, I will admit I didn’t think this was such a bad idea, but then I started to do some research.
First of all, how many people actually show up to midterm elections, even when the ballot contains important issues? Not very many.
That’s why Florida decided to open its polls weeks ahead of time, despite the increased cost. So the likelihood that there will be a large turnout, or even a turnout close to being representative of the area’s population is extremely unlikely.
Chances are the only people who would show up to these elections are those who have a stake in the land-use plan.
And often, people who don’t go to city council meetings will not even know the positives of a plan. What’s likely going to happen is all the plans for modernization and new business construction are going to be shut down before they can ever take off.
With both governer candidates having economic plans involving attracting new businesses to Florida, why would we want to install an amendment that will probably just drive them away?
Those opposed to Amendment 4 have been saying the amendment will reduce Florida’s economic output by $34 billion.
While those numbers might be slightly inflated, you can be sure that the amendment would decrease our economic output in some respect, hurting our already weak economy.
I understand the call for a purer democracy. Trust me, I do. Especially with the way the national Congress has been acting the past few years. But we have a representative democracy in America for a reason. The issues on the national stage get a lot of publicity, so we tend to know more about them.
But there are still those who have no idea about the issues surrounding health care. There are even fewer people who can discuss major state issues. With only local publicity and less interest, how many people are actually going to understand the pros and cons of a local land-use plan?
When an amendment is going to majorly hurt Florida’s economy at a time when it is already fragile, I am at a loss to understand how anyone could vote “Yes” on the issue.
Chris Dodson is a first-year finance and journalism major. His column appears every Monday.
