TALLAHASSEE, Fla. –After Gov. Ron DeSantis used millions of state dollars last year to battle against abortion and marijuana proposals, some Florida lawmakers want to ban the use of public funds to promote or oppose ballot amendments.

The Senate Ethics and Elections Committee on Monday approved such a measure by voice vote, adding it to a controversial bill to further restrict the petition-gathering process citizens groups use to get amendments before voters.

“This amendment makes sure taxpayers don’t get the bill for political issue campaigns,” said Sen. Jennifer Bradley, R-Fleming Island, the measure’s sponsor.

The amendment doesn’t prohibit the typical public message campaigns state agencies produce, she said, and it doesn’t prohibit public officials from speaking out on the issues.

“But when they cross over to influence the outcome of a ballot measure it makes me very uncomfortable … as a conservative concerned about our role in a democratic society,” Bradley said. “Isn’t that what good government is about?”

DeSantis and the agency heads that report to him spent millions on television, radio and online ads warning voters against approving ballot initiatives supporting abortion rights and legalizing marijuana. Both measures won support from a majority of voters in November but fell just short of the 60% threshold needed to become law.

The DeSantis administration has failed to comply with public records requests for an exact accounting of the cost to the state, but purchasing records indicate the state’s media blitz cost more than $16 million. Smart & Safe, the marijuana legalization campaign organization, estimated the price tag at more than $50 million, based on an analysis of ad buys.

The ACLU and Southern Legal Counsel sued the state Agency for HealthCare Administration for running a website spreading false information about the abortion amendment, but a state judge dismissed the lawsuit.

Bradley said it was up to the legislative leadership to demand a full accounting of those expenditures.

While Democrats on the committee voiced their support for the amendment, they voted against the elections bill itself, which passed 6-3. They said the bill imposes new hurdles and expenses on the already expensive signature-gathering process required to get a citizen amendment on the ballot, including imposing a $1 million bond on campaign organizations, raising the fines for violating deadlines and other rules.

It also would make it a felony for someone to file or possess more than two petitions, even for family members.

The bill would also shorten the deadline for filing signed petitions from 30 days to 10 days. It would impose a fine on the campaign organization up to $50,000 every time a petition gatherer filed late or sent a petition to the wrong county. And it would require people who sign petitions to provide more personal information than currently needed.

Bill sponsor Sen. Erin Grall, R-Vero Beach, said the changes were necessary to maintain the integrity of the process and keep out-of-state corporations from meddling with the state’s constitution.

Florida’s ballot initiatives are popular with the public, even among Republicans. A February poll of likely voters in the 2026 Republican gubernatorial primary showed more than half opposed further limiting the ability to collect signatures. The poll by Fabrizio, Lee and Associates also showed about 72% of GOP voters support citizen-driven ballot initiatives, and 76% support keeping the process the way it is.

Sen. Tina Polsky, D-Boca Raton, said the Legislature has changed the ballot initiative process several times since she became a state senator. And each time those changes have been backed by corporate interests, she said, that were opposed to the ballot measures’ goals, including raising the minimum wage, restoring the voting rights of felons, and approving the recent marijuana legalization amendment.

“There is a lot of talk about outside corporate interests… but it is the corporate interests within this state that are fighting these initiatives,” Polsky said. “We are only emboldening those corporations to safeguard against citizen initiatives. So it’s incredibly hypocritical to say it’s outside corporate interests that are causing this when I believe it is internal interests.”

If the bill passed, Florida’s county supervisors of elections would be burdened with several extra tasks – including transmitting all signatures to the Secretary of State – that would require software upgrades that could take until the end of this year, said David Ramba, a lobbyist for the supervisors. He asked Grall to consider the time involved in adapting to such massive changes.

“We have met with our software providers, and they are losing their ever-loving minds,’ Ramba testified. “The software as written doesn’t have capacity for this.”

“We want to avoid fraud as much as possible but we are struggling operationally how these can be implemented in a short amount of time.”

--------

©2025 Orlando Sentinel. Visit at orlandosentinel.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.