A proposal that would make it harder to put proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot is headed to the full Senate, but Democrats — and some Republicans — say it goes too far.

The Senate Rules Committee on Wednesday voted 10-7 to approve the bill (SB 7094), which would place a series of new restrictions on the ballot-initiative process. But opponents attacked the measure, with one Democratic senator even proposing to name the bill the "Direct Democracy Limitation Act."

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Travis Hutson, R-St. Augustine, comes after years of efforts by Republican lawmakers and powerful groups, such as the Florida Chamber of Commerce, to address what they see as a proliferation of ballot initiatives that clutter the state Constitution.

In supporting the bill on Wednesday, Senate Appropriations Chairman Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, said the Constitution is the state's "fundamental law" that sets up the basic structure of government and basic rights.

"It is not designed to write a budget," Bradley said. "It is not designed to set run-of-the-mill policy."

But opponents argue that the initiative process provides an avenue for citizens to make changes when the Legislature is unresponsive to public wishes. They point to initiatives that have passed in recent years on issues such as setting aside money for land and water conservation and broadly legalizing medical marijuana.

"The citizens' initiative process is seen as a way to check this legislature, when this legislature refuses to act on things like land and water conservation, minimum wage, medical marijuana and those sorts of things," said Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez, a Miami Democrat who unsuccessfully proposed the "Direct Democracy Limitation Act" name.

The bill focuses, in part, on the costly and time-consuming process of collecting and verifying petition signatures to reach the ballot.

As an example, to get proposed constitutional amendments on the 2020 ballot, committees needed to submit 766,200 valid petition signatures to the state and receive approval from the Florida Supreme Court of the ballot wording.

To trigger the Supreme Court review, committees needed to submit 76,632 signatures, or about 10% of the 766,200. Also, they needed to meet thresholds in at least a quarter of the state's congressional districts.

The Senate bill would make a series of changes in the process, including increasing the signature threshold for triggering Supreme Court review. It would require increasing the 10% statewide threshold to 33%. Also, it would require meeting thresholds in half of the congressional districts, rather than a quarter.

Those changes would have the effect of increasing costs for backers of ballot initiatives.

Other issues in the bill include allowing county supervisors of elections to charge more to verify petition signatures and calling for each ballot measure to have a statement about the potential impact on the state budget.

A House version of the bill (HB 7037) also has drawn controversy and is ready to be considered by the full House.

Part of the controversy about the bills stems from a law that passed last year and placed additional regulations on paid petition gatherers, including requiring them to register with the Department of State and receive petition forms from the agency.

In addition, the House and Senate are considering placing a measure on the November ballot that would increase petition-signature requirements for initiatives. The Rules Committee on Wednesday was scheduled to take up the Senate version of that proposal (SJR 7062) but postponed it.

Jim Saunders reports for the News Service of Florida.