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By:
ababington
On:
1/23/2010 9:34 PM
The following message was sent this week to Lesley Blackner, president of the Amendment 4 campaign:
Lesley Blackner
President
Amendment 4 Campaign
Dear Ms. Blackner:
On January 11th, St. Petersburg College invited you to participate in a forum on Amendment 4. In an email to the college, you wrote that your organization would only participate in the debate if you were given veto authority over who would represent the opposing side.
Your attempt to infringe on our First...
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By:
ababington
On:
1/22/2010 10:51 AM
Last Friday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released its proposed water regulations that will apply only to the state of Florida. These regulations would take effect starting in October. A wide coalition of businesses, local governments, and organizations have already spoken out against this rule: http://www.donttaxflorida.com/docs/statement.pdf.
You can view the proposed rule here: http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/standards/rules/florida/
With the release of this rule, the 60...
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By:
ababington
On:
1/5/2010 11:53 AM
A lesson in how not to manage growth
Published Thursday, December 31, 2009
Florida voters will decide this year whether to move local land use decisions to the ballot box, and St. Pete Beach's three-year experiment along a similar path offers a good lesson on the downside of letting voters manage planning by election.
There are indeed some important differences between what has happened in St. Pete Beach and Hometown Democracy, the constitutional amendment expected to appear on...
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By:
ababington
On:
12/15/2009 4:52 PM
Check back here starting at 5 pm on Wednesday, December 16th, for a live blog from the Senate Select Committee on Inland Waters in Ocala!
By:
ababington
On:
11/23/2009 9:03 AM
This weekend the Palm Beach Post became the 11th newspaper in Florida to editorialize on Amendment 4, and the 11th newspaper to publicly oppose it. Here is their editorial:
The town that saved Florida
If Floridians approve a constitutional amendment on the November 2010 ballot, local voters would have to vote on every change to a city or county comprehensive plan — the blueprint for development — no matter how innocuous. Ballots would be full of items that have little...
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By:
ababington
On:
10/21/2009 10:52 AM
On Wednesday, October 14th, Future of Florida Forum attendees were presented with the game plan for how to defeat Amendment 4 in November 2010. I moderated a panel composed of Ryan Houck, executive director of Floridians for Smarter Growth, and Jacob Stuart, president and CEO of the Central Florida Partnership.
After I gave an overview of the history of the special interest efforts to get "Hometown Democracy" into Florida's constitution, Ryan Houck talked about the...
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By:
ababington
On:
10/13/2009 9:27 AM
After 6 years and 3 failed attempts to make the ballot, the Florida Supreme Court announced in June that Florida Hometown Democracy had indeed qualified to appear on the 2010 statewide ballot. You might think that the supporters of this misguided proposal would respond by stepping up their support for the campaign.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
3rd quarter campaign fundraising reports were released for Amendment 4 today, and Hometown Democracy reported raising only $4,910...
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By:
ababington
On:
10/2/2009 1:49 PM
Apparently not content to simply cripple our system of representative democracy, Hometown Democracy supporters are now turning their sights on freedom of speech. The Suwannee Democrat had this item in today's paper:
'Hometown Democracy' hashed out at City Hall Meeting was illegal, says Amendment 4 backer
By Jeff Waters, Democrat Reporter
The Suwannee County Chamber of Commerce sponsored a town hall meeting Tuesday on Amendment 4, an initiative Chamber officials call "a grave...
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By:
ababington
On:
8/7/2009 11:38 AM
Here are two recent articles on Amendment 4 that accurately depict just how deeply flawed this proposal is:
Amendment 4 an invitation to chaos
By Jeff Bercow
Anti-Growth Amendment Pressed in Florida
By Cheryl K. Chumley
Ultimately, it will be the truth and the facts that win out in this debate, rather than childish personal attacks, wild conspiracy theories (see Scott Maxwell's response in an earlier post), or fear mongering and hysteria. In fact, if Amendment 4 passes, we'll...
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By:
ababington
On:
7/27/2009 4:11 PM
Blackner vs. Houck. 11:30 at the Leon County Civic Center. Click here for more.