I had a candidate who lives in FL tell me "let it be the 'will of the people' on election day as to whether Amendment 4 has merit." My reply was, the only way that it would be the will of the people is if each side had an even playing field--the same amount of money in order to adequately campaign.
When Vote No has 30 times the amount of money and goes to this extreme (PR below) to actually thwart the will and the minds of the people, there is no chance for good politics here or anywhere.
I went on to say that I believed that the Republic was not working well these days, certainly not the way our forefathers envisioned it.
Money corrupts and you can't win a campaign without it. People do not understand the ballot initiatives. They forget the horrendous deeds of those running for office or they forgive those decisions because they are "friends" of the candidate or other reasons. They just do not know and do not take the time to find out the truth and believe that it will all work out in the end, "it always does."
Think of Rome. Think of Greece. Think of the corrupt politicians just in our own backyard. Big Business that created our economic instability, that off-shored millions of jobs and to this day pay themselves millions of dollars in bonuses, were bailed out by the very taxpayer for whom they screwed. They were the ones that caused a major economic calamity, not only here but around the world. They control political elections to a huge degree. A recent exception to this was Jeff Greene. His money did not help him. He was a newcomer trying to win over someone who is already a U.S. Congressman and from a respected political lineage.
Take the inequity of money out of campaigning. Let each side have an even playing field in order to raise the bar to get the real and true "will of the people."
16 comments:
Lynn, you crack me up. Your arguments for Amendment 4 are the very reason why someone should vote against Amendment 4. If Amendment 4 passes, wealthy special interests will control everything! Neighborhoods won't be able to fund expensive campaigns. They'll loose! Plus, folks will be making decisions based on slick ads. That sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.
I crack you up? Doesn't take much for you, anonymous! How long did it take for you to twist the facts around? You people deserve a State paved over and high taxes.
I agree with Anonymous. One of the pitfalls of allowing differing views.
I see a disaster if 4 passes. It will bring business in Florida to a grinding halt. Let's face it Lynn, where you live right now wouldn't be there if 4 were the law of the land 35 years ago. It probably needed a change of some sort to a land use. The greedy developer would've had to walk away.
Publix on Dixie had to have the zoning changed. It possibly would have gained voter approval. But would Publix spend the time, money and effort to, after getting the approval from the Planning Department, approval from the Planning and Zoning Board, approval from the City Commission and then finally, a voter referendum? Possibly not and Lake Worth would be the loser for it.
What if Cara's group got their machine working over who Publix buys tomatoes from of their use of plastic bags?
This will be played over and over if 4 passes.
OK Lynn, tell me how these comments are twisted. Or if wrong, please state how they are wrong.
The vote no people are the wealthy special interests! Pulte Homes-over 850 MILLION in Federal bail out money, Linare Homes,over 250 MILLION ,and the list goes on. The BAILED out BUBBLE BUILDERS, the ones RESPONSIBLE for our economic mess in Florida get a slush fund for their politician friends.These people are the ones that want the right to keep telling the taxpayers of Florida to sit down and shut up.They have raised over 7 million so far to silence the people of Florida.Really sad.
How is stating the obvious twisting facts? If rich evil developers have the money and they want to build a project they're going to have the opportunity to flood the local area with literature with their point of view, promising construction jobs and influencing the vote. You know those rich evil developers they can trick anyone. Once again short sighted.
Why isn't your group pursuing the so very important super majority vote any longer? Waiting to lose the majority on the dais before it becomes important again?
44 years ago when my community was built, there was such a thing as a Comprehensive Plan. There were few people living in the city or in the State then. So, zoning and land uses were not a problem.
As more and more people discovered our State due to marketing, etc. we grew very fast especially over the past three decades. We had a vast amount of undeveloped land and developers drooled. They compromised politicians along the way and both became wealthy building community after community.
Florida's Growth Management Act requires all of Florida's 67 counties and 410 municipalities to adopt Local Government Comprehensive Plans that guide future growth and development.
We all have experienced throughout the State, changes to our Comp Plan---changes made by a few politicians. We spend over a million dollars to have a Comprehensive Plan and then some commission comes in and makes a change for his “friend.”
I realize the City seems to favor a new Publix. My question is, what is wrong with the Publix we already have right in the City of Lake Worth? It is situated in a more favorable location –not next to residential units. Publix did an extensive market study and determined that building a new Publix would make them money. They would do that regardless if we the people voted on the land-use change. They had to get approvals to build on Dixie and 2nd.
No elected official has that much clout that they can direct a business to buy from one of their personally approved vendors. That is a ridiculous assumption.
It is a lot easier to compromise a few people on a dais then an entire voting public. Land use changes have often been against common sense and the betterment of a community. They have been costly decisions and affect our roads, our public safety costs, water, electric, and all infrastructure. People should have a vote when it affects their pocketbook.
You can bet that there will be less and less change if Amendment 4 passes. We shouldn't have Comp Plan changes with every commission. Why bother spending all that money in the first place?
You may have just made my point, Lynn. I may think Publix is good for the Dixie location. You may not. Now let's bring in the spin machine (Cara's Bunch) who start a campaign to "help the poor people" from the greedy Publix, who doesn't pay union wages to tomato pickers.
They also are rumored to be keeping pregnant pigs in smaller cages that what our newly changed State Constitution allows. (Thank you to these wise voters)
If you are anti-growth, it's a no-brainer to vote for 4. Unfortunately, many of us small businesses who are not rich evil developers also rely on the continued growth of Florida to be able to continue to employ our fellow citizens. If you are retired, you don't have to worry about that.
Lynn, can you see how the passage of 4 will slow our state economy?
Cost jobs? Can you see how many of the issues you want brought up at every election or special elections have complicated issues too in-depth for even reasonable people to make a decision at the polling booth?
We elect people, they hire professionals, those professionals recommend for or against a project to an appointed board, they have their input and then our elected officials get final approval.
Yes.... we've elected some wienies, and they made bad decisions... some we were able to reverse. Activists such as yourself and well meaning people do more to keep our politicians honest (i know oxymoron) than unleashing an un-informed (or manipulated) public on such issues as professional planners spend years of education to figure out.
kkss21 said
Amendment 4 DOES NOT affect things like Publix coming into Lake Worth. Amendment 4 DOES NOT have anything to do with zoning, re-zoning,permits or variances !AMENDMENT 4 ONLY DEALS WITH LAND USE CHANGES ! AGAIN, LAND USE CHANGES! Ex.Farmland to Condos. Or residential area to commercial uses. An example here in Lake Worth-we the taxpayers would have been able to vote on the LAND USE change at the beach from PROS to BAC.
Katie McGiveron
I grew up in a town that still looks the same to this day. It was built out then. It is a wealthy town. It did not have to depend on the bogus argument that development solves all ills. It doesn't. No one who believes in Amendment 4 is anti-growth. That is your argument, not ours. We believe only in the right to vote on land-use changes. What about the 1.4 billion acres ready to develop right now in Florida? All you developers, get going. Let the people decide on land-use changes and you guys develop to your heats content. It will take decades to pave over all that land.
anony, don't you see anything corrupt about politicians voting on these things? Are you really that naive?
Katie and Lynn... two more good points. (I must be naive)
Publix is being built on property that needed a land use change to allow residential housing units, like the ones already built where the church used to be. A loooooonnng time ago, that property supported a Winn-Dixie/ Kwik-Chek store. Land use was changed to residential from commercial, right? Now back to commercial, right?
Now the Beach property. The present (new)land use "zoning" is BAC. It was PROS which would not allow the businesses that are there to remain.... technically.
If that land use designation were to be brought before the voters, the uproar would be deafening. The mis-information about what BAC entailed would confuse and nothing would be done again for years. Look what happened with the "Hotel/condos and "Giving away" the beach.
While I have a hard time defending"some" of the corrupt dealings of our trusted politicians, Amendment 4 will make things infinitely worse. You can't even get 10% of the population to vote NOW. What will happen when even fewer people, motivated by fear and mis-information need to spend 15 minutes in a booth trying to figure out IF a land use change is warranted or needed. It is crazy.
@KKSS21 - Actually Amendment 4 deals with so much more than land use - the entire Comprehensive Plan. Last check - Lake Worth's contained ten elements: housing, public schools, capital improvements, intergovernmental coordination, and on and on. Any change to any of these elements would require a referendum.
Stop confusing the issue by crying foul that Amendment 4 doesn't cover zoning, etc. Let's start with the basics - it covers all changes to the comp plans and that is not reasonable.
Amendment 4 does not deal with all changes to a comp plan. Amendment 4 ONLY deals with land use changes to the Comp plan. And only after our elected officials have approved those changes .Please stop trying to lie to people.
The above is exactly why Amendment should be voted down. The amendment is confusing. Zoning will/won't be covered, other comp plan changes will/won't be covered.
Palm Beach Post endorses a NO vote on Amendment 4. They are not considered developer friendly. They state, rightly so, that it will result in gridlock, lawsuits and higher taxes for all.
Amendment 4 is bad for business in general, not just real estate and development. It'll be great for the attorneys.
The Palm beach Post IS developer friendly. They derive most of their income from advertising. The Post is a joke. And there is nothing confusing about the Amendment unless, of course, you can not read and can not comprehend...or, you just like perpetuating the lie.
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