The Billboard Bullies
It happens like clockwork. Each year Florida's billboard industry tries to sneak through legislation designed to weaken restrictions on outdoor advertising. Right on schedule, the industry is at it again. Lobbyists are pushing a measure that would strip local governments of their authority to regulate roadside signs. The amendment, introduced by state Senator Tom Lee, R-Brandon, would violate the principle of home rule by infringing upon a community's right to make its own zoning decisions.
Lee's amendment is attached to SB 940, a bill that addresses eminent domain issues. It should be stricken from the legislation. Many Florida communities have rules that forbid the replacement of any billboard that is removed for a road project. The laws are in place for an important reason: to eliminate eye-sores, so that highway beautification can take place after a road is widened.
Lee's proposal would obliterate any rule that requires the permanent removal of billboards and allow the industry to do an end-run around local laws. It would allow any sign removed for a road project to be rebuilt or relocated at state expense.
If passed, the law would apply to billboards that are located along roads that are maintained by the state or federally designated.
It's no surprise the billboard industry's proposal received such a warm reception from the Senate's Fiscal Policy Committee, where the amendment was attached. All seven members of the committee, including Lee, have received contributions from the billboard industry's political action committee over the past four years. So have members of the Senate Comprehensive Planning, Local and Military Affairs Committee, which also is considering the measure.
For a Republican-controlled Legislature that constantly pays lip service to local control, Lee's amendment is pure hypocrisy. The Legislature already has passed – and Governor Jeb Bush has signed – a law that sets a state-wide minimum for police and firefighters pension benefits for cities that use money from a state fund to pay those benefits. Where will this assault on local control end?
