Advertising Constitutional Amendments Cost Taxpayers $1 Million
October 1st, 2018 by Mike Vasilinda
As voters prepare to weigh in on a dozen constitutional amendments, taxpayers here in Florida spent $1 million advertising the ballot language.
The state had little choice in spending the money.
From one end of Florida to the other, virtually every newspaper of record got a piece of a $1 million ad buy from the state.
The ads detail all 12 constitutional amendments on the November ballot.
“Well there’s a real issue whether people have ever read those right,” said FSU Political Scientist, Dr. Carol Weissert.
The 12 amendments were so long that it took two pages to print everything in English, and another two full pages in Spanish.
“It made a lot more sense when news papers were read more frequently, but it makes sense these days to save that money and do something online to make it available,” said Weissert.
Newspapers nearly lost the legal ad business in 2011.
Lawmakers wanted it all on a government web site, but newspapers fought back.
“It’s the most central repository of information really that we have in a community. Having that third party make sure that the information is published correctly I think provides a level of assurance that the public finds important,” said Dean Ridings, President of the Florida Press Association.
Unlike regular legal ads for local governments, the constitution itself requires the amendment’s wording be printed in the papers.
Changing the printing requirement would require lawmakers to put an amendment on the ballot, but few lawmakers want to anger their hometown paper.
The million dollars spent by the state is small potatoes in an 89 billion dollar budget, but as lawmakers like to say, pretty soon it starts to add up to real money.
In 2012, lawmakers did require newspapers publishing legal notices to also post the notices on their website at no additional charge.
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