State Rep. Richard Steinberg, D-Miami Beach, and state Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, today filed a bill that would “authorize and establish requirements for a citizens’ veto referendum.”

The bill is a ”joint resolution proposing the creation of Section 28 of Article I and amendment of Section 9 of Article III of the State Constitution to authorize and establish requirements for a citizens’ veto referendum and revise the effective dates of laws to conform to the citizens’ veto referendum.”

“The only thing that really can’t be vetoed are appropriations, and emergency items that have been defined separately in the bill as an emergency, and the Legislature has passed by a super majority vote,” Steinberg tells The Florida Independent.

“I personally saw that citizens in other states had that ability,” Steinberg says, “which I was unaware of, and when I did some more research I realized that over 20 states afford that opportunity to their citizens, and since we didn’t I thought we should.”

Steinberg adds: “I’m hoping that members of the legislature will see the importance of giving Floridians the ability to vote on this, and to decide whether they want to afford themselves this opportunity in the future or not. At the end of the day, if the Legislature passes this, all it does is put it before the people and it will require a 60 percent vote to pass it.”

“Constituents reach out to me on a daily basis expressing frustration with the maze that is the legislative process,” Dockery said in a press release. “In this political climate, the bulk of the power is held by wealthy special interests. This joint resolution would place that power where it rightly belongs: into the hands of the citizens.”