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 Florida Constitutional Amendments, 2002 Ballot These seven proposed constitutional amendments will appear on the 2002 ballot. All were placed on the ballot by the Legislature except for the sixth, which is a citizen initiative: CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT NO. 6: Protect people from the health hazards of second-hand tobacco smoke by prohibiting workplace smoking Summary: This amendment prohibits tobacco smoking in enclosed indoor workplaces. Allows exceptions for private residences except when they are being used to provide commercial child care, adult care or health care. Also allows exceptions for retail tobacco shops, designated smoking guest rooms at hotels and other public lodging establishments, and stand-alone bars. Provides definitions, and requires the legislature to promptly implement this amendment. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT NO. 1: Excessive punishments Summary: Proposes an amendment to the State Constitution identical to a proposed amendment to Section 17 of Article I of the State Constitution which was approved by a statewide vote in 1998. The state Supreme Court struck the 1998 amendment in a ruling in which four of the seven justices found that the ballot summary was inaccurate. The proposed amendment expressly authorizes the death penalty for capital crimes and expressly authorizes retroactive changes in the method of execution. The amendment changes the prohibition against "cruel or unusual punishment" in Section 17 of Article I of the State Constitution, to a prohibition against "cruel and unusual punishment" to conform with the wording of the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The amendment prohibits reduction of a death sentence based on invalidity of an execution method and provides for continued force of the sentence. The amendment permits any execution method unless prohibited by the United States Constitution. The amendment requires construction of the prohibition against cruel or unusual punishment and the proposed prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment to conform to United States Supreme Court interpretation of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The amendment would prevent state courts, including the Florida Supreme Court, from treating the state constitutional prohibition against cruel or unusual punishment as being more expansive than the federal constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment or U.S. Supreme Court interpretations thereof. The amendment effectively nullifies rights allowed under the state prohibition against cruel or unusual punishment which may afford greater protections for those subject to punishment for crimes than will be provided by the amendment. Under the amendment, the protections afforded those subject to punishment for crimes under the "cruel or unusual punishment" clause, as that clause appears in Section 17 of Article I of the State Constitution, will be the same as the minimum protections provided under the "cruel and unusual" punishments clause of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The amendment provides for retroactive applicability. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT NO. 2: Economic impact statements for proposed constitutional amendments or revisions Summary: Requires the Legislature to provide by general law for the provision of an economic impact statement to the public prior to the public voting on an amendment of the Florida Constitution proposed by initiative. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT NO. 3: Authorizing amendment to Miami-Dade County Home Rule Charter by special law approved by referendum Summary: Proposes an amendment to Section 6 of Article VIII of the State Constitution to authorize amendments or revisions to the Miami-Dade County Home Rule Charter by special law approved by a vote of the electors of Miami-Dade County and to conform references to the county's name. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT NO. 4: Laws providing public records or meetings exemptions; two-thirds vote required Summary: Requires that laws providing exemptions from public records or public meetings requirements must, after the effective date of this amendment, be passed by a two-thirds vote of each house of the Legislature. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT NO. 5: Review of exemptions and exclusions from the tax on sales, use, and other transactions Summary: Proposes to amend the State Constitution to create a joint legislative committee to conduct a review of exemptions from the tax on sales, use and other transactions imposed by law and exclusions of sales of services from such taxation. Provides for submission of the committee's findings and recommendations to the presiding officers of the Legislature not later than March 1, 2004, 2005, and 2006. Requires committee decisions to deauthorize any exemption or exclusion which are approved by a majority of the committee membership to be presented to the Legislature as a resolution, not subject to gubernatorial veto. Authorizes the Legislature to rescind decisions of the committee by joint resolution. Provides that the deauthorization of exemptions or exclusions shall take effect July 1 of the calendar year following the second regular session after adoption of the committee's resolution. Retains the Legislature's authority to adopt or reauthorize exemptions or exclusions from such tax. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT NO. 7: Exemption for construction of living quarters for parents or grandparents Summary: Proposes an amendment to the State Constitution to allow counties to exempt from taxation an increase in the assessed value of homestead property resulting from constructing living quarters for a parent or grandparent of the property owner or the property owner's spouse who is 62 years old or older. Limits the amount of such exemption to the increase in assessed value resulting from such construction or 20 percent of the total assessed value of the property as improved, whichever is less. --The Associated Press (to send a message to the Newsbee Group, click the bar) 
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