Recently the Florida Constitutional Revision Commission rejected proposals to ask voters if they wanted to place the right to a quality environment into the state constitution, arguing it would lead to a flood of frivolous litigation that could hurt business.
That might lead many people to suspect the body would employ this caveat consistently throughout its deliberations, but they would be wrong.
This week the panel’s Local Government Committee will consider a proposed constitutional amendment that reads:
A regulation enacted by a county, municipality, or special district may not intrude upon or impede commerce, trade, or labor across the respective entities boundaries.
If something like that isn’t a litigation magnet, what is?
“Impede” is a pretty vague word. What would the threshold be? What would the remedy be? What problems would this measure solve that couldn’t solved in a more practical way?
It’s also interesting that this proposal is coming up at a time when the Florida Legislature is considering proposals to further erode the review projects with of multi-jurisdictional called developments of regional impact.
Anyway, the proposal is coming before the committee tomorrow.
Contact committee members or Sen. Tom Lee, who proposed this, to let your views be known. The contact information is below.
Commissioner Erika Donalds, Local Government Committee Chair
(850) 270-8283, Erika.Donalds@flcrc.gov
Commissioner Chris Nocco, Local Government Committee Vice Chair
(727) 847-5878, Chris.Nocco@flcrc.gov
Commissioner Emery Gainey
(850) 296-0898, Emery.Gainey@flcrc.gov
Commissioner Bob Solari
(772) 226-1438, Bob.Solari@flcrc.gov
Commissioner John Stemberger
(850) 329-0805, John.Stemberger@flcrc.gov
Commissioner Carolyn Timmann
(772) 210-4398. Carolyn.Timmann@flcrc.gov
Commissioner Nicole Washington
(786) 309-6022, Nicole.Washington@flcrc.gov
Senator Tom Lee
(850) 487-5020, Lee.Tom.web@flsenate.gov