Fla. Pregnant Pig amendment has lasting legacy

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - The “pregnant pig” amendment Florida voters adopted six years ago finally goes into effect next week, but its most prominent and enduring role has been to help curtail citizen initiatives.

The amendment, which prohibits tying up or confining gestating sows in enclosures too small for them to turn around in, goes into effect Wednesday after an extended phase-in. Rather than change their ways, Florida’s only two hog operations that would have been affected went out of business, said Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson.

The 2002 amendment, sponsored by animal-rights groups, has become a rallying point for business interests, their allies in the Republican-controlled Legislature and others who want to make it harder to amend the Florida Constitution by petition.

“It’s been a Pyrrhic victory,“ said University of Florida political scientist Dan Smith. “The pregnant pig and bullet train amendments have both been held up as symbols of how easy it is to amend the state constitution.“

In 2000, voters approved a high-speed rail line that would span the state. Four years later they repealed it as too costly.

The pregnant pig amendment, though, remains in the constitution, readily available to be waved liked a bloody shirt by those who want to clamp down on citizen initiatives.

They have included then-Gov. Jeb Bush, who said in his 2003 State of the State address: “The bottom line is that pregnant pigs don’t belong in our state constitution.“

The Florida Chamber of Commerce has led the lobbying effort in the Legislature. The chamber argues that special interests, backed by out-of-state donors, have hijacked the initiative process to buy their way into the constitution by hiring paid petition gatherers.

The document establishing the fundamental principles of Florida’s government and the rights of its citizens has been cluttered, initiative opponents say, with such unrelated provisions as, well, pregnant pigs.

On the other hand, petition drive sponsors argue they’ve had no other recourse because the Legislature has thwarted the will of the people by refusing to pass laws they obviously want. Florida has no similar petition process for passing laws.

“If pregnant pigs never were put in the constitution, and we weren’t the laughingstock of late night talk shows, we probably wouldn’t have gotten a wake up call to look at the process,“ said Chamber of Commerce president Mark Wilson.

Since the pig amendment, the Legislature has put up several barriers to amending the constitution through petition drives. The new laws:

— Require state economists to write ballot statements saying how much they expect an initiative to cost taxpayers, if anything.

— Moved up the deadline for getting signatures verified by about six months to Feb. 1 of an election year.

— Let voters revoke their signatures. An appellate court has ruled this law is unconstitutional, but an appeal is pending before the Florida Supreme Court.

— Allow businesses, including stores and shopping malls, to prohibit some petition drives on their property while allowing others at their choosing.

The Legislature also placed on the 2006 ballot an amendment requiring 60 percent approval for all future constitutional changes — not just initiatives — instead of a simple majority.

Voters adopted it by a 58 percent margin — one of the last amendments approved by less than 60 percent.

The University of Florida’s Smith, who wrote a book about citizen initiatives titled “Tax Crusaders and the Politics of Direct Democracy,“ said it’s unfair to put the onus entirely on the pregnant pig and bullet train amendments.

The push to reel in initiatives also gained momentum from amendments that have banned smoking in the workplace, raised the minimum wage and set class size limits for public schools, Smith said.

They were advocated by the American Lung, Cancer and Heart associations, labor and teachers unions and Democratic politicians after the Legislature turned aside proposals to pass similar laws.

“This is not about citizen initiatives gone wild,“ Smith said. “This is about lobbyists for special interests being circumvented.“

Pregnant pigs has just been “a convenient symbol,“ he said. Common Cause’s Ben Wilcox, an initiative advocate, agreed.

“I think the people see through that argument,“ he said. “That’s what they use against us.“

Efforts to repeal the pig amendment have so far failed in the Legislature.

If lawmakers should put a repeal on a future ballot, though, it’ll be harder to pass. That’s due to the 60 percent requirement adopted with the support of lawmakers like then-House Speaker Allan Bense, R-Panama City.

“Pregnant pigs,“ Bense said at the time, “is the perfect example of things we don’t need in our constitution.“

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.