| 1 | A bill to be entitled |
| 2 | An act relating to ballot summaries; amending s. 101.161, |
| 3 | F.S.; exempting proposals from a constitution revision |
| 4 | commission or taxation and budget reform commission from |
| 5 | ballot summary word limits; providing an effective date. |
| 6 |
|
| 7 | Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: |
| 8 |
|
| 9 | Section 1. Subsection (1) of section 101.161, Florida |
| 10 | Statutes, is amended to read: |
| 11 | 101.161 Referenda; ballots.-- |
| 12 | (1) Whenever a constitutional amendment or other public |
| 13 | measure is submitted to the vote of the people, the substance of |
| 14 | such amendment or other public measure shall be printed in clear |
| 15 | and unambiguous language on the ballot after the list of |
| 16 | candidates, followed by the word "yes" and also by the word |
| 17 | "no," and shall be styled in such a manner that a "yes" vote |
| 18 | will indicate approval of the proposal and a "no" vote will |
| 19 | indicate rejection. The wording of the substance of the |
| 20 | amendment or other public measure and the ballot title to appear |
| 21 | on the ballot shall be embodied in the joint resolution, |
| 22 | constitutional revision commission proposal, constitutional |
| 23 | convention proposal, taxation and budget reform commission |
| 24 | proposal, or enabling resolution or ordinance. Except for |
| 25 | amendments and ballot language proposed by joint resolution or |
| 26 | by proposal of a constitution revision commission or taxation |
| 27 | and budget reform commission, the substance of the amendment or |
| 28 | other public measure shall be an explanatory statement, not |
| 29 | exceeding 75 words in length, of the chief purpose of the |
| 30 | measure. In addition, for every amendment proposed by |
| 31 | initiative, the ballot shall include, following the ballot |
| 32 | summary, a separate financial impact statement concerning the |
| 33 | measure prepared by the Financial Impact Estimating Conference |
| 34 | in accordance with s. 100.371(5). The ballot title shall consist |
| 35 | of a caption, not exceeding 15 words in length, by which the |
| 36 | measure is commonly referred to or spoken of. |
| 37 | Section 2. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law. |