Ballot initiative could affect Florida businesses

Originally Published by the Pensacola News Journal

Published September, 11 2007
Carlton Proctor

As if property taxes, runaway insurance costs and a weak housing market weren't enough, Florida's business community now has something else to worry about.

A proposed 2008 ballot initiative, which could radically change the way growth occurs in Florida, is rapidly gaining momentum in South Florida and is headed for the Panhandle, according to Mark Wilson, a spokesman for the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

Addressing a packed Gulf Power Co. economic symposium in Destin on Monday, Wilson said if passed, the proposed constitutional amendment would require a local referendum on every change made to a county's comprehensive plan, which governs development and growth patterns.

"We (the Florida chamber) are calling it the 'Vote on Everything' amendment," Wilson said. "It would be a knockout punch to Florida's growth."Called "Hometown Democracy," the proposed constitutional amendment, led by Volusia County lawyers Ross Burnaman and Lesley Blackner, is backed by the Sierra Club and other groups that contend the state is dominated by the development industry.Wilson said Hometown Democracy has gathered more than half the 611,009 signatures required to get the amendment on the November 2008 ballot.

Florida's constitution is one of the easiest in the nation to amend, said Wilson, and given voters' "grumpy" mood, exacerbated by taxes and insurance issues, prospects for the initiative are improving.

Critics of the Hometown Democracy movement are calling it "ballot-box zoning," and say it would present voters in all 67 of Florida's counties with a bewildering number of ballots to cast on every change to the local comprehensive plan.Earlier Monday, the symposium heard opening remarks from Robert Atkinson, a Washington, D.C., economics expert and author, who spoke about the importance of local communities "specializing" their economic development strategies.

"Some economic development groups shoot at anything that flies, and claim anything that falls," Atkinson said. "Instead, you should specialize your message to attract specialized, high-paying jobs.

"The core of Northwest Florida's specialized message to prospective out-of-state businesses and entrepreneurs should emphasize the region's quality of life, he said."You can compete because you offer qualities that other states can't," Atkinson said. "You can compete because you're not Kansas or Nebraska.

"Pensacola Mayor John Fogg said Atkinson's message resonated because "it's telling us to focus on where are strengths are" in health care, the military and education."We need to get this message out to the business world," Fogg said.