Florida Constitution Pros And Cons

The United States Constitution guarantees individual liberties, but perhaps the most important guarantee is democracy. Everything that exists in the United States, or doesn’t, is because of democracy. Democracy assures that the direction of the country is representative of its citizens. Each state has a constitution in place that outlines their values and priorities, some constitutions are better at fulfilling their goals than others, and some have policies that reflect a minority of the population’s beliefs. In the Spring, the 2017 Florida Constitutional Convention assembled to re-write history. Florida is a great state and a constitution that represents Florida deserves to be just as great. On April 26, 2017 the Constitutional Convention adopted a constitution that begins as a modern day work of art and ends with a fiscal travesty.
Within the 2017 constitution are a collection of newly adopted policies that brings justice to Florida’s political system.
There is now a minimum requirement to enter Florida’s political scene. The House of Representatives requires residency in the district, a high school diploma and no felonies. To top off it all off is the introduction of the two term limit, which I believe will prevent corruption. The Senate is reserved for the elite; not only will a contender have ten years of continuous residency within his or her district but they must hold a graduate degree to run for the office of the senate; best of all, the senator will receive loan forgiveness for their service. The best adaptation to the Florida legislative branch is the new Court of Citizens. The Court of Citizens exists to create another layer of checks and balances. With its own set of requirements, the Court of Citizens prevents incompetent and unmotivated individuals from seeking office. Adding another branch of government does promote big government, but it holds the legislative and executive branches
accountable. There are a few problems that I find with this constitution. The members of the Constitutional Convention sought to create a document that represented the values of Floridians, and within the beginning pages, that goal is evident. Unfortunately, it is clear to see that towards the end of the constitution it was less about the people and more about doing something different. For example, this newly adopted constitution is 14 pages in length, excluding the title page and preamble, and in the second half of the constitution are the most drastic changes. Counties are to be referred to as groves as per the constitution but this has no effect on a single individual life; in fact, what will occur is more budget spending to change every sign and plaque that displays the word county- all because this Constitutional Convention committee wanted to be different and change the name county to grove. Also, there is too much back and forth between partisan and non-partisan. Florida primaries are partisan, municipal elections are non-partisan, House of Representatives are partisan, Court of Citizens is non-partisan; all of Florida should be either partisan or non-partisan, this shows that there was a lot of push and pull within the Convention. The absolute worst part of the 2017 constitution is the “Fiscal Policy”. Not only does the fiscal policy directly contradict the education policy, but there aren’t enough restrictions and people love Florida for the lack of state tax. First the education problems: there is no age requirement, there is no obligation to remain in Florida once the education is completed, there is no maximum parental income requirement, and there is no grade or G.P.A. requirement. The committee members who voted in favor of this free education policy were clearly inspired by the decision in New York, but at least in the North there are obligations to remain in that state and there are limitations placed on how a student shall receive funds. (Lobosco, K) Also, in the “Education System” there is a minimum requirement to receive a free AA, but once the page is flipped, to the “Fiscal Policy”, the only requirement that exists for this free education is to be enrolled full time, which is a stark contradiction. Now the tax problem: no where within the text is there a restriction against raising the state tax, the law does not limit schools from receiving more money than necessary, and there isn’t a policy that explains what will occur when the cost of free tuition exceeds the taxes received. Currently, the numbers presented were 801,000 students enrolled at a cost of around $10 billion and setting a 2% state tax would give the state almost $19 billion to spend on free tuition, that’s a $9 billion dollar surplus but it’s not that simple. Let’s say that after this constitution is ratified and the student count doubles within weeks, the cost will exceed $20 billion and where will this money come from? Will students be pushed away? Are we giving the money directly to the student or the school, and which school will receive more than the others? Florida has the privilege of being one of only seven states to be free of a state tax (Andrushko, G), why take that away? There are too many contradictions and future problems that could arise for a free education state tax to function properly. In conclusion, the 2017 Florida Constitutional Convention assembled to put in place a document that epitomized the concerns citizens had for the state. There were many positive aspects to the constitution: a new legislative branch of government, minimum requirements to hold office, and placing more checks and balances on all three branches. What happened to the notion of working for what you want? We have become a nation of handouts. Handouts give the impression of privilege and we are a society that is currently in a battle against any sort of privilege. Nothing in life is free, nor should it be, and Florida is too great to become a state of the ultimate handout. By being alive, we are living in history and are granted the opportunity to make our story worth telling. This constitution isn’t worthy of history, so my vote will be no to the 2017 Florida Constitution.