ROXANNE BROWN
Staff Writer
CLERMONT -- The South Lake Chamber of Commerce has taken a public stance against Amendment 4, a referendum that voters will see on the November ballot.
At Friday's chamber breakfast, Ryan Houck, executive director and spokesman for Citizens for Lower Taxes and a Stronger Economy, offered attendees his thoughts about the amendment.
Houck's said passing Amendment 4 would be a grave mistake, but his main plea was for voters to become educated before heading to the polls.
"This is a thorny issue, but the name of the game is education," he said. "The more you know, the more influential you can be."
Amendment 4 would give Florida voters the right to decide whether their local comprehensive land use plans should be changed, instead of relying solely on city councils and county commissions to make those decisions.
It would not require a special election and any change, with the exception of rezonings, variances, permits and annexations, would be allowed.
Houck told attendees that while most comp plans are imperfect and many of them were written years ago, Amendment 4 is even more imperfect.
"We all remember what we were doing in the '80s - the hairstyles, the jeans and the comprehensive plans," Houck said.
However, he said Amendment 4 is not the answer. It would worsen the situation, Houck said, by killing jobs and raising taxes. He said it could cost the state 267,246 jobs, and reduce Florida's economic output by $34 billion each year.
Houck urged people to see the possible negative impacts for themselves by visiting www.florida2010.org and read the blog post on St. Pete Beach, which abandoned a local version of Amendment 4 after a three-year experiment.
"They were being told the same thing people are being told today, that it (Amendment 4) gives people a say on growth," said Houck. "Who would be against that? But that's not true. That's not what it does."
Houck said the amendment empowers special interest lawyers at the expense of taxpayers by giving people a false sense of thinking they have a true say on growth.
After Houck spoke, many chamber members who were not aware of what Amendment 4 was expressed their desire to learn more about it.
Others said the chamber should have provided a forum-type presentation with opposing views on the issue.
Chamber President Ray San Fratello said he'd look into bringing in a forum in the future, but reminded attendees that the fight to block Amendment 4 is something the board -- which includes the eight other Lake County chambers that make up the chamber alliance -- have been working on since 2007.
"Our chamber is very conservative and we don't really stick our necks out on too many issues," San Fratello said. "But we feel, after years of research on both sides, that this was such an impractical proposition that we had to do it."
San Fratello said Amendment 4 is not the way to control the growth mindset that was prevalent a decade ago.
"There is a whole different mindset than 10 years ago," he said. "We've learned from our mistakes, but we need to address it beyond Amendment 4. What we need to do is throw people out of office who are not doing what we want them to and elect officials who will.
"We also need to work with the Legislature to ensure that the growth laws in effect are ones that will deter the rampant wild growth we saw in the last decade," he said.
