Fla Supremes Turn a Blind Eye to Costs of Hometown Democracy Amendment

In Advisory Opinion re: Referenda Required for Adoption and Amendment of Local Comprehensive Land Use Plans, the Florida Supreme Court rejected a second proposed financial impact statement for the proposed Hometown Demagoguey amendment.

The gist of the Court's complaint was that the impact statement assumed that there would have to be a significant number of special elections:

As drafted, the revised financial impact statement would mislead voters into
believing that implementation of the amendment will require the expenditure of
millions of dollars. Such an inference is patently contrary to the purpose of
the amendment, which is to limit the number of amendments to local comprehensive
land use plans.

Of course, the courts statement of the "purpose" of Hometown Demagoguey is simply not true: the purpose is not to limit the number of amendments, but to subject them to referenda. Limiting the number of amendments is not a stated purpose - at least it's nowhere in the ballot title and summary.

A majority of the Court (at least this time - see later opinion on the "counter-amendment") seem dedicated to seeing this as a "good government" reform- there seems to be no recognition of the highly problematic and anti-democratic effects it will have. There's no recognition of the number of state-mandated amendments that will have to be processed (many on an annual basis) and voted on, no recognition that there is a right to seek plan amendments, no recognition that each amendment might require its own place on a ballot, no recognition that there aren't twice a year elections in most jurisdictions.