What are the facts?

On November 2^nd, you will be asked to vote yes or no on a plan to alter Florida’s Constitution called Amendment 4. Special interest lawyers, adult entertainment interests and population control groups have designed, funded and proposed this amendment to our Constitution.  Take a moment to learn more about who’s backing Amendment 4 and why. 

What is the issue?

Amendment 4 will prolong the recession and put recovery out of reach for thousands of working Floridians.  As a result, leading business, labor, and civic groups oppose Amendment 4   

What will the measure do?

This proposed change to Florida’s Constitution would require a taxpayer-funded referendum for every single change to a local government comprehensive plan.  Simply stated, Amendment 4 would force Floridians, not the representatives they elect, to decide hundreds of minor, technical comprehensive plan changes each year on issues like drainage, traffic circulation, and intergovernmental coordination.

What does that mean for you?

Here is what Amendment 4 means for you: (1) a Florida with drastically fewer jobs, (2) a significantly weaker economy, and (3) unbearably higher taxes to feed the Amendment 4 “litigation” bureaucracy.

The Florida Chamber of Commerce asked leading economists to study the impact of Amendment 4.  The study indicates that Amendment 4 would likely put more than 267,000 Floridians out of work, shrink Florida’s economic output by more than $34 billion annually, and take nearly $12 billion out of the pockets of working families.

With Florida’s jobless rate reaching well into double digits, our state’s top business and labor groups have put politics aside to oppose Amendment 4.  Mark Wilson, president of the Florida Chamber of Commerce wrote: “If you like the recession, you’ll love Amendment 4.”  Frank Ortis, executive board member with Florida’s AFL-CIO noted that “Amendment 4 will devastate Florida’s economy by costing hundreds of thousands of jobs and driving the unemployment rate even higher.”

According to the Orlando Sentinel, “The cost to local governments of [Amendment 4] would soar into the millions.” Those costs would be shouldered by Florida’s taxpayers who could expect to see not only more government waste, but also nonstop lawsuits as special interests wage war in court over the technical wording of endless ballot summaries.  Referencing a failed experiment in Amendment 4-style rule in the small Florida town of St. Pete Beach, the St. Petersburg Times wrote that Amendment 4 leads to “short-term thinking” and “invites lawsuits…”

What is the conclusion?

Florida’s jobless rate is high—but it could get much, much worse with the passage of Amendment 4.  At a time when many families and small businesses are struggling to make ends meet, that’s the last thing we need.  Please take the time to learn more about Amendment 4 by visiting www.Florida2010.org.  

Paid political advertisement – paid for and sponsored by Citizens for Lower Taxes and a Stronger Economy, Inc. 610 South Blvd, Tampa FL 33606

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The city is defined by the St Johns River, which bisects it en route to the nearby Atlantic coast. The mild climate and access to the ocean have made it an important centre for the US Navy and for commercial shipping and it has attracted the back-office operations of several national financial institutions. A logistical centre, Jacksonville is also home to CSX Corporation, the dominant rail company in the eastern US.

Many of the city’s residents live in the cookie-cutter subdivisions that seem to define much of Florida but, since the 1970s, a dedicated group of locals has fought to preserve two neighbourhoods, Riverside and Avondale. Today the result of those efforts is one of the largest collections of early to mid-20th-century residential architecture in the country, protected by national historic district status.

All told, Riverside and Avondale, which lie contiguously along the bank of the St Johns River, comprise a collection of about 5,000 buildings, of which about three-quarters are protected by historic designation. Architectural styles range from late Victorian to craftsman bungalows, colonial revival and prairie school, the design tradition of America’s pre-eminent 20th-century architect, Frank Lloyd Wright.

That this collection exists is largely due to a disaster – Jacksonville’s Great Fire of 1901, which destroyed the city centre and left 10,000 homeless. The fire triggered a construction boom, with more than 13,000 new residential and commercial buildings erected in the following 11 years. Riverside, which had previously been a retreat for Jacksonville’s wealthy, filled up rapidly and developers moved on to Avondale, further down the river.

Henry John Klutho, a young architect from the Midwest, designed much of the new city centre, influenced by Wright’s horizontal motifs. One of his buildings, a department store with atrium, became City Hall and his firm picked up many residential commissions in Riverside and Avondale.

Riverside went into decline in the 1960s as more affluent residents fled the city for the suburbs. By the 1970s the housing stock was deteriorating and crime was growing but local activists launched an ultimately successful drive to secure historical recognition and created Riverside Avondale Preservation (RAP), now a strong and politically active organisation of residents of the area. Many houses sport an RAP plaque and the group’s members and staff lobby city government to protect their neighbourhood. An ambitious new project undertaken by the group has been the establishment of a weekly art market that takes place under a bridge and has space for 180 vendors, with a waiting list of hundreds more.

The historic district designation in 2000 and the opening of a big supermarket in Riverside three years later spurred interest in the area, says Sally Suslak, owner of Traditions Realty, a boutique estate agency that focuses on the Riverside-Avondale market. Today buyers are seeking out the area because of its demographic diversity and its central location, she says. It is a measure of the renewed interest that she has taken on 13 agents since starting her firm in the depths of the 2008 slump.  Read more…