When did Florida’s towns and cities become the enemy to some of our legislators in Tallahassee? The state mandates that counties exist and every person in Florida lives in one…it isn’t an option. But only the residents of an area can come together and petition to form municipalities. They do so, as we are now seeing with Indiantown, because citizens want local control over zoning and the ability to pass ordinances to reflect their sensibilities. They are willing to tax themselves in order to live in communities to exert that control through democratically elected local boards.
The state definitively has the right to make sure that all Floridians are treated universally fair and equitable. It is your duty to make sure that the people’s constitutional rights are not violated. That the criminal code is applied to all fairly and that our courts are just and impartial.
Tallahassee has a responsibility to make sure that our lakes and rivers are healthy and clean. State government needs to make sure that all Floridians have the ability to attend top-notch colleges and universities. You should be the agent to build and repair our highways and regulate standards in professions. Those are state obligations.
But is it the responsibility of the legislature to prohibit Sewall’s Point from regulating short-term rentals or Stuart the amount of their business fee. Is it not better for the residents of cities to have local rules to deal with local problems? Why should a legislator that is elected in Pensacola have a say over how the people of Jupiter Island or Ocean Breeze want their communities to look and how the amount of tax their citizens pay.
50 years ago by a statewide vote of the people “Home Rule” was enshrined in the Florida Constitution. Though the legislature does have the right to pre-emption, it was a right that was to be used sparingly not, as a wholesale assault on the people’s right to local self-government. Pre-emption is not there to for a legislator to mandate what he feels is best. And Pre-emption was certainly not meant to forestall an ordinance that a business or industry does not want to comply with.
The vast majority of municipalities were formed so that urban services could be provided. Today the motive may include the people’s right to determine the pace of growth and commercialization where they live. If you believe in the rights of self-determination, then anytime pre-emption is used to circumvent that right, then pre-emption is not used in a manner intended.
Floridians voted to empower themselves with the right of local self-government. It is the only form of government that is voluntary in nature. Citizens choose to pay taxes to live in self-governing municipalities. They want to be able to have communities that they control through municipal ordinances and codes. Why would you want to deny the people that right?