Eleven amendments to the state constitution, all of them proposed by the Florida House and Senate, will appear on your general election ballot. Each of them poses constitutional and fiscal problems of which voters should be wary. All but one could be handled legislatively, but are being pushed as amendments to hog-tie future legislatures from rolling them back should the current political winds shift.

The irony of this amendment overreach is that the Legislature only six years ago put a referendum on the ballot to increase the vote margin required to pass an amendment to 60 percent. It passed. The amendment was a response to successful citizen ballot initiatives, many of them unworthy of inclusion in the constitution, ranging from pregnant pigs to cast net restrictions. We supported that amendment because of our long-held belief that the constitution should be the framework for state government, not an instrument of lawmaking.