When local voters make their voices heard, Florida lawmakers seek to muzzle them | Editorial
When Key West put three referendums on the ballot last year to limit cruise ships at the city’s port, the cruise industry funded a dark-money disinformation campaign to convince voters to reject the proposals.
Despite stoking fears that the referendums would “devastate” city services like police and fire rescue, the industry lost that battle. Voters approved the referendums by margins of 60 percent to 80 percent to limit the number of tourists allowed to disembark to 1,500 per day, ban ships with more than 1,300 people and give priority to ships with good health and environmental records.
That made sense to Key West voters trying to preserve their way of life and the world’s third-largest barrier reef at the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. It makes sense to anyone concerned about the Keys’ delicate ecosystem.
But opponents of the measure weren’t having it, so they did what monied special interests usually do when they can’t get their way locally: They turned to the Legislature, which is considering legislation to void the results of the referendums and prohibit municipalities from restricting operations at their ports. Senate Bill 426 and House 267 each has cleared a committee in the Senate and House.
Voters silenced
If most of the 160 House and Senate lawmakers agree — and they should not — then Key West voters would have made a decision for themselves that, ultimately, means nothing. Only two of those lawmakers represent Key West — Rep. Jim Mooney and Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez, who was one of two votes against the bill in the Senate Transportation Committee last week.
“As the lone state senator representing Monroe County, it is incumbent upon me to best represent the interests of Monroe residents. A bill that undoes the efforts of so many Key West residents would be detrimental,” Rodriguez, R-Doral, told the Editorial Board.
The referendums were part of an understandable trend: When the state fails to address concerns that negatively impact Floridians, locals step up with their own initiatives. In Key West, voters got a temporary taste of what they eventually voted to make permanent. Since the COVID-19 pandemic forced cruise activity to a screeching halt, the water has become clearer, the island less overrun with tourists.
“Within four to six weeks’ time, people down here began to notice a pretty striking improvement in day-to-day water quality,” Arlo Haskell, one of the founders of the citizens group that placed the referendums on the ballot, told the Editorial Board. “The real environmental issue is the ships are too large for our channel. We have a very narrow and shallow channel, and the ships displace mud from the bottom and it causes turbidity.”
Anti-democratic
The problem is when lawmakers are squeezed between economic interests and the environment — well, we don’t need to tell you who wins. That’s what happened when communities started talking about banning retail plastic bags. The Legislature, at the urging of retail giants like Publix, prohibited local regulations and vowed to address the issue from a statewide perspective. (That was in 2008 and we’re still waiting. We aren’t holding our breath.) It happened when the Legislature preempted local bans on Styrofoam containers in 2016 and on plastic straws in 2019, though the latter was vetoed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The Key West preemption is just the tip of the iceberg this year. Lawmakers also are pushing legislation to stop counties and cities from increasing energy alternatives to fight climate change — which many Republicans can’t even recognize much less do something about. SB 856 and HB 839 would block restrictions on the construction of “energy infrastructure” related to the production and distribution of electricity, natural gas and petroleum products. The bills would go so far as nullifying solar-energy permitting ordinances and county authority over pipelines along roads and end renewable energy grant programs, opponents say. Not by accident, the bills follow model legislation written by the American Natural Gas Association.
Unless these lawmakers suddenly remember what a democracy is all about, Key West voters are about to learn for themselves: The odds are stacked against you.
This story was originally published March 21, 2021 at 6:00 AM.