Daniel TilsonSeveral bills moving forward through the 2014 Florida legislative session offer excellent opportunities for opponents of both big and bad government to join forces.
Imagine, conservatives concerned with shrinking and disempowering government, uniting with liberals more concerned with its purpose and impact.
Imagine, agreeing to disagree on divisive social issues, but agreeing to work together to fight back against a multi-pronged attack on a fundamental democratic principle.
It’s a principle that helps shield all of us — Democrats, Republicans, those with No Party Affiliation and those completely disengaged from civic life — from being harmed by big and bad government.
It’s a simple, core precept.
State government should not unduly usurp decision-making and oversight rights of county and municipal governments, or individual citizens.
On the government level, it’s Home Rule.
On the individual level, it’s personal freedom.
No doubt, there remain instances in which state government can, should and does enact laws to solve problems, to protect and preserve the quality of life in our neighborhoods and households.
But when that government interferes in local and personal decision-making to “pay back” or play quid-quo-pro with big business, partisan political, religious and other special interests, it’s time for citizens of all stripes to unite in opposition.
And now is the time to oppose at least three big, bad government power grabs in progress.
Senate Bill (SB) 1464 and House Bill (HB) 703 are bald-faced, business-first initiatives that fly in the face of “Home Rule” over growth and development decision-making. That’s a principle Gov. Rick Scott and GOP legislators leaned on heavily in explaining their 2011 elimination of decades-old statewide environmental and quality-of-life protections.
These bills would take away that home rule, preempting local government oversight of land use and water management, while giving 30 and 50-year sweetheart water-permit deals to the very biggest agricultural, real estate and landowning interests.
Whatever your politics are, or are not, if you care about the land and water where you live, you’ll want to call and email legislators in angry opposition to SB 1464 and HB 703.
The same goes for a bill labeled CS/SB 1528, which undermines Home Rule on the public education front by taking away local school boards’ oversight of charter school approvals and contracts.
I don’t know about you, but watching as a parent of a second-grader while millions of dollars are funneled out of public schools and into for-profit charters that don’t perform any better, leaves me wanting local parents and school boards with oversight capacity.
And then there’s SB 918 and HB 1047, a double-barreled legislative shotgun pointed at Florida women; one chamber loaded with an assault on individual freedom, the other with potentially life-threatening interference in personal medical decisions.
This legislation would extend Florida’s current ban on third-trimester abortions to include any case in which a doctor — not necessarily one who performs an examination — has declared the fetus “medically viable” on any level.
No exceptions would be made for cases of profound fetal abnormality or illness, or for cases of rape, incest or grave physical danger to the expectant mother, should her pregnancy be forced full-term.
Understand that the most recent annual statistics reveal not a single third-trimester abortion was performed in Florida. It’s fair to surmise that rather than a solution to a problem, this legislation is political pandering to powerful anti-choice forces.
Whether personal freedom for individual citizens or Home Rule for local government, we’re sliding down a very slippery slope if we let state officials interfere with our lives in ways that create problems, rather than solve them.
Daniel Tilson has a Boca Raton-based communications firm called Full Cup Media, specializing in online video and written content for non-profits, political candidates and organizations, and small businesses. Column courtesy of Context Florida.
