January 20, 2010

Scott Maxwell

TAKING NAMES

Pols want to rig votes -- and use your money to do it

There's a good chance Florida politicians are going to spend your money telling you how to vote this year.

It doesn't matter whether you'd like to make up your own mind.

It doesn't matter whether you already have.

It doesn't even matter that what they want to do is illegal - at least for now.

Politicians in this state are so scared that you might actually think for yourself - especially when it comes to development in this state - that they don't want to give you that chance.

The latest news has legislators talking about overturning a law they passed just last year - one that banned local governments from spending public money to campaign.

The law was a good one.

It is simply undemocratic for the state to use taxpayers' money for political propaganda.

And yet that was precisely what was happening.

When city councils, school boards or county commissions were worried about an upcoming referendum, some would send out mailers, brochures or water-bill inserts, telling voters how to vote.

So the Legislature decided to end the practice. And the move was roundly hailed.

But now, politicians from Pensacola to Port St. Lucie are scared to death of a constitutional amendment that would put the power to approve major growth projects into the hands of … wait for it … you.

You must be stopped.

So now, with city and county officials egging them on, legislators are talking about repealing the law.

"I'm going to file a bill overturning it," Tampa Bay-area Sen. Mike Bennett declared in the St. Petersburg Times. "I think I made a serious mistake voting for that."

This, my friends, is Florida politics in a nutshell.

The politicians don't want a fair fight. They want to rig the system. And if that weren't galling enough, they want to use your money to do it.

The growth amendment that has politicians freaked is Hometown Democracy, which would let voters, rather than elected officials, decide whether to approve some of their community's major developments.

The pols know the amendment is likely to pass. Residents of this state are ready to take growth back into their own hands.

They are sick of politicians giving their developer pals exactly what they want - whether it's a far-flung subdivision or a massive shopping center. They are tired of watching these projects clog their roads, crowd their schools and jack up their tax bills.

So far, one of the most effective arguments against Hometown Democracy has come in the form of a bald-faced lie.

The developers and their allies have consistently argued that Hometown Democracy would stop all growth. (That was actually the headline on one of their many op-eds a few months back: "Amendment 4 Would Stop Growth.")

It's simply not true. And this newspaper recently blew a woolly mammoth-size hole in that fallacy.

Reporter David Damron checked Orlando and Orange County records and found that elected officials have already approved more than 93,000 units of residential construction, 68 million square feet of office and commercial space, 51 million square feet of industrial space and 83,000 hotel rooms - all of which has yet to be developed.

That's a massive amount of growth that's already allowed (almost as many residential units as Orlando has now). Hometown Democracy won't stop it. What it might do is promote infill and development in places where it's already supposed to go - rather than in far-flung places.

I'll be the first to admit Hometown Democracy is an imperfect solution to a complicated problem.

But you know what? You don't have to like Hometown Democracy to know that politicians shouldn't use public money to campaign against it.

Just ask State Sen. Andy Gardiner.

The Orlando Republican is no fan of Hometown Democracy. "But the issue here is tax dollars," he said. "Any city or county commissioner can stand up and say anything they want about Hometown Democracy or anything else. But they shouldn't use tax money to do so."

The current law should stand. It's simply good policy.

If you agree, contact your legislators and tell them you don't want Senate Bill 216 repealed.

Tell them we have enough problems in this state that they shouldn't waste time trying to replace a good law with a bad one.

You can reach the legislative switchboard at 850-488-4371 or find contact information for both House and Senate members at leg.state.fl.us.

Scott Maxwell can be reached at smaxwell@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-6141.