TALLAHASSEE - Florida state Rep. Brad Drake (R-Eucheeanna) seeks to abolish a commission that meets once every 20 years to consider what hot-button issues should be placed on the ballot in consideration for becoming constitutional amendments.
According to Drake, the Florida Constitution Revision Commission (FCRC) is simply too partisan to ever be consequentially effective.
“The way it goes is pretty much everyone that’s on the panel is there just to be a loyal extension for the ideas and policies of the person that put them on the committee,” Drake told the Florida Record.
“You saw that last year when there were a number of issues the panel could have picked up that voters had a real interest it. Instead, all we saw where many of them pushing the same ideas the people that appointed them have long been pushing.”
Drake argues enough is enough, and he’s not alone in taking his unwavering position.
He recently filed legislation that would abolish FCRC.
Around that same time, Republican Sen. Jeff Brandes (R-St. Petersburg) was proposing similar legislation for consideration during the legislative session that starts March 5.
In filing his proposal, Brandes referred to the FCRC as “constitutional jumanji,” with “no rules, players have no experience, once it starts it can’t stop, crazy things pop out, and you never know how damaging they will be.”
If approved, the proposals would formally appear on the 2020 in ballot.
Legislators like Drake and Brandes have focused a critical eye on the commission after members conjoined various otherwise disconnected issues as seven amendments last year that all ultimately passed into law.
According to the Tallahassee Democrat, one of those amendments combined a ban on offshore oil drilling with regulation of indoor vaping, which was presented to voters as a take-it-or-leave-it proposition.
“Neither the governor’s appointee, the speaker’s appointee or the senate president appointee’s was there to shake the rust out of the system in terms of creating and finding bold ideas that the general public has interest in,” Drake added.
“Me personally, I just don’t think there is a need for a bunch of bumbled up garbage from special interest groups to be considered for constitutional amendment. All the proposals generated by the commission amount to being nothing more than ideas that couldn’t pass the whole legislature and are now being pushed by special interest forces.”
Drake added he thinks there are enough other, far more legitimate ways to amend the constitution without the commission, such as through the legislature process or via public petition.
“By abolishing this commission, we eliminate the proxy vote perpetuated by cronyism,” he said. “All the people appointed by the various leaders work for the person that appointed them. It’s the 'crony commission,' and in no way is an independent body there to speak about the true interest of the people.”
The Florida Constitution Revision Commission isn’t scheduled to meet again until the year 2037.