Q&A of the Day – Citizen-Led Proposed Amendments That Might Be on Florida’s 2026 Ballot

With so little time left in the process, it's likely the marijuana proposal is the only citizen-led proposal with a realistic path towards potential inclusion on next year’s ballot.  

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Your questions, Brian's answers. It's time for today. It's Q
and A of the day. This is the Brian mud Show. Yeah,
Today's Q and A Citizen the lead propose amendments that
might be on Florida's twenty twenty six ballot. This is
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(00:23):
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(00:44):
You may lay down the message right there, maybe for
a future Q and A. Today's note this Brian, thanks
for the analysis of the proposed property tax amendments. The
legislature has proposed something I've not heard any discussion of.
Are any citizen led proposed amendments that might be on
next year's ballot, Are there any that are likely to
make it? Okay? So, yeah, you bring up a good point.

(01:06):
You know, a lot of times we will have the
advertisements from the groups, the packs that are trying to
push these citizen initiatives. There often is a lot of
competition try to get on the ballot, and there are
a bunch that are trying to yet again this year,
twenty twenty in total are considered active according to the

(01:26):
Florida Division of Elections the Florida Secretary of State. So
that's how many are in process in some form or fashion.
Now before we get to the citizen led stuff, I
think a lot of folks don't even realize. We have
two proposed amendments that are already on next year's ballot.
They were passed in this year's state legislative session. A

(01:48):
couple that Joel has brushed up on quite a bit.
Is going to offer some analysis on here changes to
Budget Stabilization Fund amendment. Oh yeah, I'm still working on
that one. Okay, Exempt tangible personal property use for agriculture
or agritourism from property taxes Amendment. I'm about six months

(02:08):
away from having that one down, okay. So speaking of
property taxes. That proposal is probably going to have company
on next November's ballot, as both the governor and obviously
state legislature are seeking varied forms of property tax Really,
so in today's question focus on citizen led proposed constitutional amendments.

(02:30):
I'm going to save the further discussion about those two
and the analysis of them for another day before long
before we get to election day next November, I will
do what I always do with the Florida Amendment series,
analyze and break down each one of the propose amendments
on the ballot, and then also offer my recommendation on
them as well. But anyway, for citizen lead proposals to

(02:52):
make their way onto ballots, sponsors must first procure eight
hundred and eighty thousand and sixty two verified six natures,
that is equal to eight percent of the vote's cast
in the preceding presential election. So the first note on
this is it's actually a little bit easier to get
on the ballot with the citizen led measure this cycle
than the previous one. And the reason is that there

(03:14):
were actually more voters in the twenty twenty election in
Florida than last year's presential election. Not a big differen
it's about eight thousand, but I you know, matters a
little bit here, so it's not as hard to get
on the ballot. The verified signatures must be collected and
verified by the state known later than February first of
next year. Now, once a quarter of the needed signatures,

(03:38):
where about two hundred and twenty thousand have been collected,
proposals are then eligible for a judicial review by the
Florida Supreme Court. And so as we're talking about anything
that is potentially going to make our ballot, there's only
one that is at a point where it's triggered that review.
And again the deadline is February first, So if you're
not a quarter of the way they are yet, I mean,

(03:59):
the likely that you're going to get there just as
slim and none. So the only proposal that has received
to over quarter the needed signatures to this point, a
proposal that you're probably familiar with you've been in this
state because it's been attempted before. It is adult personal
use of marijuana. And similar to the previous efforts that

(04:21):
have been made for marijuana legalization, the pack involved once
again pushing this is smart in save Florida and this
is the ballot summary. This is what it would do.
Allows adults twenty one in older to possess, purchase, or
use marijuana for non medical consumption. Establishes possession limits, prohibits

(04:43):
marketing and packaging attractive to children. Prohibits smoking and vaping
in public. Maintains prohibition on driving under influence. Applies to
Florida law. Does not change or immunize violations of federal law.
Allows medical marijuana t treatment centers to acquire, cultivate, process, transport,
and sell marijuana to adults. Provides for creation of licenses

(05:08):
for non medical marijuana businesses. So a couple of things there.
A lot of the language is done just simply for
marketing purposes, you know, like to say this does not
change or you know, immunize violations of federal law. Well,
of course not. There's this whole crazy thing called the constitution.
The supremacy clause already says that the whole thing about

(05:31):
driving under the influence, it doesn't matter what a constitutional
amendment would say. You can say you can drive under
the influence as long as it's marijuana. No, it doesn't
work that way. So anyway, there's a lot of stuff
that's in there just so people will go, well, yeah,
as long as you're not driving under the influencer, Yeah,
as long as federal law isn't impacted, And so just

(05:52):
shows you kind of the slick marketing packaging, even with
the language that is being used here. Now, most recently,
the proposal had six hundred and six x t two
thousand plus ballid signatures, or about seventy five percent of
the required total for potential ballot inclusion. Now there's currently
a legal challenge by the state seeking to potentially invalidate

(06:12):
a practically two hundred thousand of these signatures collected in response.
The pack backing the proposal recently sued Florida Secretary of
State Court Bird, alleging that his effort to invalidate barified
signatures is unlawful. At issue is the way that the
petitions for signatures were presented. The state currently arguing that
the full text of the proposal was never presented to

(06:33):
those who received mailers seeking signatures for the proposal that
they sent along with the prepaid return envelope. The Smartan
State Florida fac is arguing that state law does not
require the full text to be provided when people are
being petitioned, so the outcome of this legal challenge may
well determine whether or not the proposal qualifies for the ballot.

(06:53):
So yeah, with so little time left in the process,
it's likely the marijuana proposal is the only citizen led
proposal the realistic path towards potential inclusion on next year's ballot.