Who’s Really Behind Amendment 4?
The Special Interests Supporting This Drastic Amendment:
Higher taxes, fewer jobs and endless litigation at taxpayer expense - that's the future for Florida, if we leave it up to proponents of Amendment 4. No other state in the country has adopted a proposal as extreme as Amendment 4. If passed, the “Vote on Everything” amendment will require taxpayer-funded referenda for any change to a local government's comprehensive plan - even minor or technical revisions. Under Amendment 4, it would not be uncommon for voters to face 200 or 300 individual land planning items on a single ballot!
Who could be in favor of such a drastic, over-reaching, and ill-advised amendment?
Spearheading the Amendment 4 campaign is special interest lawyer, Lesley Blackner. A wealthy Palm Beach resident, she has already put nearly $1 million of her personal fortune into putting this amendment on the ballot. She's been accused of "playing too loosely with the facts," criticized for her "bizarre comments," and called "hard to take seriously" by the Editorial Board of the Tampa Tribune. Even the Editorial Board of the Palm Beach Post, Ms. Blackner's home newspaper, wrote that she could be “purposefully misleading the public” about the scope of her amendment.
Writer of Amendment 4, Ross Burnaman, is a Tallahassee special interest lawyer. After promising that Amendment 4 would “give the people a say on growth,” Burnaman went on to lead the legal effort in St. Pete Beach to overturn an election that his side lost. This endless string of litigation has contributed to a higher property tax rate and wasted tax dollars in St. Pete Beach. Burnaman and Blackner co-founded the Amendment 4 Political Action Committee.
Joseph Redner, owner of the Mons Venus strip club in Tampa, is an ardent supporter of Amendment 4. Mr. Redner has frequently been engaged in legal battles with the Tampa City Council, which has tried to place restrictions on his nude clubs for 25 years. Under Amendment 4, strip clubs and pornography outlets would have an easier time beating back citizen-supported land use changes to restrict their activities.
Joyce Tarnow, founder of Floridians for a Sustainable Population, a fringe population control group, has given significant amounts of money to the Amendment 4 campaign. Tarnow, who was arrested in 2007 for violating private property rights in front of a supermarket, supports Amendment 4 because she believes it will aid her population control efforts by curbing growth. Tarnow is no stranger to controversy, having gained notoriety for her particularly cruel and appalling comments regarding immigration and developing countries. In a NewTimes article, she is quoted as advising Haiti to “stew in your own juices”. Her website even said that there are "too many people in Florida" and had called for a "U.S. population policy" that would "limit our numbers."
