Back in 2005 I testified in the Florida legislature against an attempt to weaken the state’s term limits. Ignoring my testimony, legislators put their anti-limits amendment on the ballot. But as the election approached, they got scared. So scared, in fact, that they went so far as to pull their anti-term limits amendment off the ballot.
Now, four years later, there’s a proposed constitutional amendment to extend the state’s property tax discount for disabled veterans to those veterans who live in Florida now, but were not Florida residents when they entered the military. This popular idea is likely to win legislative approval to be on the ballot.
Well, at least, it was likely . . . until Senator Mike Bennett tacked on an amendment. Bennett wants to weaken Florida’s “eight is enough” term limits law by giving legislators twelves years. He sees latching it to the popular veterans’ measure as the best way to do that.
Notice that when Florida citizens propose constitutional amendments they can only address one subject, no pairing a popular issue with an unrelated unpopular one.
House Majority Leader Adam Hasner called the measure “disrespectful to those men and women who have served our country and are disabled veterans.”
It is also disrespectful to the 77 percent of Floridians who voted for eight-year term limits and want to keep them.
Floridians cherish military veterans.
Veteran politicians? Not so much.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
4 replies on “Veteran Politicians vs. Veterans”
We need to have term limits for US Senators and Representatives. How do we do this. Also, we need one subject per bill in Congress. We need to get career politicians out of office.
The corrupt politicians have to make a choice; term limits via statute or by gunfire.
Disrespectful! Bennett should be ashamed. Then again, I doubt he knows what that means. You can tell from my e-mail address I’m a veteran.
As a New York State resident, living with a State Legislature which has been labeled as the most dysfunctional in the nation, this does not surprise me at all. Politicians do not represent us; they represent themselves.