Tallahassee is Overruling Our Local Governments in Florida
Dear Christopher,
There’s a crisis threatening our communities all over Florida. Florida state legislators filed 42 bills in the 2021 legislative session to overrule local city and county ordinances. This "Tallahassee Takeover" affects everything from environmental ordinances designed to keep Florida’s water and air clean to election laws that keep dark money out of local politics.
Since 1968, Florida’s constitution has guaranteed Home Rule to Florida’s cities and counties. If you agree that the government closest to the people should be able to govern without interference, you should be concerned about all of the pre-emption bills coming from Tallahassee.
Here are some examples of how our state government is putting politics before people.
Senate Bill 426 "Seaport Pre-Emption" — PASSED
This bill prevents local governments which own seaports (Key West, Pensacola, St. Petersburg, and Panama City) from passing bills that impact their cities’ water and ports. When local citizens passed referendums restricting the size of ships coming into port, Tallahassee decided to take that power away. If citizens can’t pass referendums affecting their water quality, and quality of life, is that really Home Rule?
Senate Bill 1884 - "Firearm Pre-Emption" — PASSED
This bill prevents local governments from from creating unwritten gun policies and preventing them from circumventing punishment. Neither ammunition nor gun licenses can be regulated by cities under this bill - it all must go through the state’s agencies.
Senate Bill 1076 - "Public Works Pre-Emption" — PASSED
This bill changes a key rule that lets cities regulate construction projects if the project used less than 50% state funding. Now if the project uses any state money at all, the cities can’t monitor the construction at all. Never mind the safety or economic well being of the local citizens, this is another example of pre-emption instead of Home Rule.
Executive Order 21-175: Masks in Schools — ORDERED
Florida's governor recently signed an executive order banning local school boards from implementing a mask mandate. While this is not a bill from the legislature, it fits in with the pattern of pre-emption over Home Rule.
Take our poll: do you support this executive order banning mask mandates?
We will keep you updated on the attack on Home Rule.
In the meantime, thanks for standing up for your fellow citizens,
Opportunity For All Floridians