Pasco becomes the latest victim of lawmakers' attack on local priorities

Florida’s Republican-dominated Legislature can’t stop undermining home rule — the concept that the government closest to the people is generally the best government. It’s something Thomas Jefferson supported, as did most Republicans lawmakers in Tallahassee until the last decade or so. Now home rule is something too many of them pay lip service to while undermining it again and again.

From tree ordinances to rent control to gun restrictions, the Legislature is making it harder for local governments to set their own rules and regulations. Lawmakers have overturned three citizen referendums in Key West that approved limiting the number of cruise ships and passengers in the city. They have stopped local laws on fertilizer use and single-use plastics in several cities and have targeted efforts anywhere to regulate guns. Now comes a new example, this one involving Pasco County.

Pasco officials want to grow jobs in their own county. They are fighting home and apartment builders who are seeking to grab land that officials had already designated for business and industries. Unfortunately, the Legislature has made that much more difficult by preempting the county’s plans, siding instead with the powerful development interests that routinely contribute money to — you guessed it — Republican legislators.

This isn’t some culture war spat between right-wing lawmakers and the more liberal politicians who run most of Florida’s urban areas. This is Pasco, a fairly conservative area where all five county commissioners are Republicans and which has voted Republican in the last five presidential elections. In other words, no local government is safe from the bullies in Tallahassee.

Their assault on home rule runs counter to the historical intent of Florida citizens, who more than a half-century ago voted to enshrine the concept in the Florida Constitution. In doing so, they gave local governments the power to establish regulations and ordinances, protect public health and safety and to tax — as long as the actions are consistent with state and federal laws.

https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/2023/07/24/pasco-becomes-latest-victim-lawmakers-attack-local-priorities-editorial/