Citizens of Florida losing their First Amendment rights?
To the editor:
Do you like being part of the nanny state? In recent years, the state government has taken away the ability of local governments to control their own futures. The state through last year’s sprawl law favored developers over Home Rule. The state has mandated what cannot be taught or even discussed in public schools, no local decisions allowed.
This year the target is the right to gather petitions to support proposed constitutional amendments. Last year despite spending tens of millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money fighting the abortion rights and legalization of marijuana amendments on the ballot both received over 50% approval but fell short of the required 60% to make them law. House Bill 1205 and Senate Bill 7016 are designed so if citizens desire to amend the constitution it becomes all but impossible. Million-dollar bonds, background checks on those gathering petitions, fines, and jail time if a petition has incorrect information, even though those collecting the signatures have no way of validating the information.
The state does not want you to vote on any amendment they personally do not agree with. So much for the FREE state of Florida!
The state is counting on its citizens not to pay attention to what they do in Tallahassee. This is how democracy is lost. Please contact your state legislators and tell them not to take away your right to put amendments on the ballot. Please go to floridarighttocleanwater.org and sign the petition to put the right to clean water on the 2026 ballot.
Dan Carney
Cape Coral