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Floridians Take Symbolic Vote on Federal Balanced Budget Amendment

October 21, 2010 | WLRN - When Florida voters go to the polls this year, they'll find a question on the ballot asking whether the U.S. Constitution should be amended to require the federal government to balance its budget. The referendum is symbolic and nonbinding, but the Republican state lawmakers who put it on the ballot are trying to send a message to Washington.

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Outgoing Florida Senate President Jeff Atwater says heedless deficit spending is a major threat to the future of the national economy. He also says Congress doesn't listen when the Legislature by itself sends messages asking for a balanced budget amendment, so the state House and Senate passed resolutions this year putting the question on the ballot.  

“We felt it was important not to just send another resolution which will wind up in a dumpster behind the Capitol,” Atwater said, “but to let the people of Florida weigh in and express themselves.”

The ballot question refers to the "uncontrolled growth of our national debt," declares that it "threatens our economy and national security," and stipulates that the federal budget must be balanced without raising taxes. But the referendum is nonbinding, so even if it's approved, no one has to do anything. That’s unprecedented in Florida ballot history.

Lynn University political scientist Robert Watson thinks it’s confusing because, he says, voters may not realize that it will produce no direct results.  He also sees an ulterior motive behind the measure.

“It is designed top get people out to vote who would likely vote for those politicians who put it on the ballot,” Watson said.

State Senator Atwater, a Palm Beach County Republican now running for state Chief Financial Officer, strongly refutes that charge.  He says if that were the real motivation, Republicans would be campaigning for the balanced budget referendum, when in fact, he says, no money has been spent to promote it.

The other initiatives on the Florida ballot actually would amend the state constitution.  They require 60% voter approval, but the nonbinding referendum can pass with a simple majority.

 

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