House Bill 869 should be Vetoed

For immediate release
April 28, 2010
For further information, contact:
John Hedrick (850) 339-5462
Dan Lobeck (941) 350-5256
Joyce Tarnow (954) 593-3834

Don't Use Taxpayer Dollars To Tell Us How To Vote

Atwater should table HB 869 and Governor Should Veto if it passes

Here we go again!

Citizen organizations are calling upon Senate President Atwater to table HB 869. If he does not table, Governor Crist should veto it, just as he vetoed another, similar piece of legislative sleight of hand just three weeks ago. Like its predecessor, vetoed HB 1207, HB 869 could allow local governments to spend taxpayer dollars on campaigns to get taxpayers to vote for higher taxes.

"That's just wrong," says John Hedrick, Chair of the Panhandle Citizens Coalition. "We do not believe that governments have any business using taxpayer's money to tell voters how to vote on an issue. Inevitably, you're forcing people who do not agree with the politicians' stance on an issue to subsidize the point of view that they oppose.

"Collectively, we and other citizen's groups are asking voters to call or e-mail Atwater at (850) 487-5100 or atwater.jeff.web@flsenate.gov. We urge him to table the bill and if this onerous bill passes the Senate, we want calls to the Governor as soon as possible to ask him to veto HB 869. Governor Crist can be called at (850) 488-7146 or e-mailed at Charlie.Crist@MyFlorida.com," Hedrick stated.

HB 869 threatens the law passed in 2009 that prohibits local governments from using taxpayer dollars to tell voters how to vote on ballot issues. If HB 869 removes that prohibition, a county commission could conduct an expensive campaign, at the taxpayers' expense, to get voters to vote, say, for higher taxes.

Specifically, current law now prohibits a local government from using public funds for a "political advertisement" or "electioneering communication" on a state or local referendum issue. (A "political advertisement" specifically urges voters to "Vote Yes" or Vote No," while an "electioneering communication" can fall just short of that.)

The problem with HB 869 is that it redefines the term "electioneering communication" to exclude ballot issues, or referenda, leaving the term "electioneering communication" to prohibit only campaigns for or against individual candidates.

If HB 869's change becomes enacted, then the law will conflict with itself because the 2009 change already prohibits a local government from issuing "electioneering communication" on ballot issues, or referenda. In this confusion, a city or county commission could argue that HB 869 now allows it to conduct an expensive, one-sided, and deceptive campaign, at taxpayer expense, to get taxpayers to vote for higher taxes, or to vote as politicians want voters to vote on some other referendum, so long as the local government's ads stop short of saying "Vote Yes" or "Vote No".

"Senate President Atwater should table HB 869, and if it passes anyway, Governor Crist should veto it to avoid this internal conflict in the law," says Dan Lobeck, President of Control Growth Now. "He should also veto the bill to avoid the possibility that local governments will use the change to say that local governments can now use our taxpayer dollars to pay for propaganda to get us to vote the way they want, such as on tax increases everywhere. It's altogether a bad change."

"I see a nefarious purpose behind this bill," said Joyce Tarnow, President of Floridians for a Sustainable Population. "This bill deliberately takes aim at Florida Hometown Democracy's Amendment 4 which is being viciously attacked by the Chamber of Commerce and the Growth Machine."