Amendments, Election of 11-6-06:

1905 JR 1 (Article V, Section 9) {Defeated}

1905 JR 2 (Article V, Section 39) {Defeated}

1905 JR 3 (Article V, Sections 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47) {Defeated}

1905 JR 4 (Article XVI, Sections 32, 33, 34, 35) {Defeated}

1905 HJR 5 (Article XVII, Section 1) {Defeated}

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JOINT RESOLUTION Proposing to Amend Section 9 of Article V of the Constitution of the State of Florida, Relative to the Salaries of Justices of the Supreme Court and Circuit Judges.

Be it Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:

That Section 9 of Article V of the Constitution of the State of Florida be and the same is hereby amended so as to read as follows, viz:

Section 9. The salaries of each Justice of the Supreme Court shall be four thousand ($4,000.00) dollars a year. The salary of each Circuit Judge shall be three thousand five hundred ($3,500.00) dollars a year.

That the foregoing amendment to Section 9 of Article V of the Constitution is hereby agreed to and the same shall be submitted to the electors of the State for approval or rejection at the next general election of representatives as required by Section 1, Article XVII of the Constitution.

Approved May 31, 1905.

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A JOINT RESOLUTION Proposing an Amendment to Article V of the Constitution of the State of Florida Relative to the Judiciary Department.

Be it Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:

That the following amendment to Article V of the Constitution of the State of Florida, relative to the Judiciary Department, to be numbered Section 39 of said Article V, be and the same is hereby agreed to and shall be submitted to the electors of the State at the general election to be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, A. D. 1906, for ratification or rejection, to-wit:

Section 39. The annual salary of the Judges of each of the Criminal Courts of Record now, or hereafter to be, established shall be paid quarterly by the county where such court is established, and shall be as follows: In counties of less than fifteen thousand population, one thousand dollars; in counties of from fifteen thousand to twenty-five thousand population, fifteen hundred dollars; in counties of from twenty-five thousand to thirty-five thousand population, two thousand dollars; and in counties of more than thirty-five thousand population, twenty-five hundred dollars, hereby repealing any and all part and parts of the said Constitution in conflict herewith.

Approved June 6, 1905.

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A JOINT RESOLUTION Proposing Amendments to Article V of the Constitution of the State of Florida Relative to the Judiciary Department.

Be it Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:

That the following amendments to Article V of the Constitution of the State of Florida, relative to the Judiciary Department, to be numbered Sections 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46 and 47, of said Article V, be and the same are hereby agreed to and shall be submitted to the electors of the State at the general election to be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, A. D. 1906, for ratification or rejection, to-wit:

Section 40. There shall be established in the county of Escambia, whenever the voters of said county shall so determine by a majority of the votes cast, on the question at any general election, a court of record and there shall be a judge of said court who shall be appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate who shall hold his office for six years and whose salary shall be two thousand, five hundred dollars a year, payable quarterly by the county of Escambia. The criminal court of record now established in Escambia county shall, upon the adoption of these amendments, become and be the court of record as herein provided and all officers of such criminal court of record shall be officers of such court of record and discharge the duties and receive the emoluments of such until the expiration of their present term of office.

Section 41. The said court and judge shall have exclusive original jurisdiction of all criminal cases, not capital, which shall arise in Escambia county, and shall have in Escambia county, concurrent with the Circuit Court and Circuit Judge of said county, the same original jurisdiction of all other cases and matters as the circuit court and circuit judge of said county, and the same power to issue writs of mandamus, injunction, quo warranto, certiorari, prohibition, habeas corpus and all writs proper and necessary to the complete exercise of their jurisdiction as the circuit court and circuit judge of said county, except the power and authority to summon and empanel a grand jury.

Section 42. There shall be six terms of said court in each year.

Section 43. There shall be for said court a prosecuting attorney who shall be appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate and who shall hold his office for four years. His compensation shall be fixed by law.

Section 44. All offenses triable in said court shall be prosecuted upon information under oath to be filed by the prosecuting attorney, but the grand jury of the circuit court for said county may indict for any offense triable in the court of record. Upon the finding of such indictment the circuit judge shall commit or bail the accused for trial in the court of record, which trial shall be upon information.

Section 45. The clerk of said court shall be elected by the electors of Escambia county and shall hold office for four years, and his compensation shall be fixed by law. The sheriff of Escambia county shall be the executive officer of said court, and his duties and fees shall be fixed by law.

Section 46. The same rules of procedure and practice which obtain in the circuit court of the county shall obtain in the court of record, and all laws relative to criminal courts of record, except as otherwise provided herein, shall apply to and control the court of record. Change of venue may be had from the court of record to the circuit court of another county for the same causes, and under the laws providing for changing the venue from the circuit court of one county to the circuit court of another county. The Governor, may in his discretion, order the circuit judge of Escambia county or of any other county to hold one or more terms or parts of terms of the court of record. Any civil cause in the court of record may be tried before a referee, or in case of the disqualification of the judge of the court of record, may be tried by a judge ad litem, or may be transferred to the circuit court of Escambia county or of any other county, in the same way and according to the same provisions as govern such proceedings in the circuit court of Escambia county.

Section 47. The Supreme Court of the State shall have appellate jurisdiction in all cases at law and in equity originating in the court of record, and in cases of conviction of felony in the court of record. The circuit court of Escambia county shall have final appellate jurisdiction of all misdemeanors tried in the court of record. All appeals or writs of error prosecuted from the court of record, whether to the Supreme Court or Circuit Court, shall be prosecuted in the same way and according to the same rules as govern such proceedings from the Circuit Court to the Supreme Court.

Approved June 6, 1905.

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JOINT RESOLUTION Proposing An Amendment to Article XVI of the Constitution of the State of Florida, Relating to the Drainage, Reclamation and Improvement of the Swamp and Overflowed Lands, the Creation of a Board of Drainage Commissioners, Prescribing Its Powers and Duties, Authorizing the Establishment of Drainage Districts, a Drainage System, the Building of Canals, Levees, Dikes and Reservoirs for Purposes of Drainage, Irrigation and Commerce, the Assessment of Lands to be Drained, Reclaimed, Improved and benefitted by Means Thereof, the collection of Necessary Funds by Assessment of Benefits and Taxation and Providing for the Management and Maintenance thereof, and for the Exercise of the Right of Eminent Domain, and for the Sale and Uses of Said Lands for the Purposes of Drainage, Reclamation and Improvement of Said Swamp and Overflowed Lands Within the State of Florida.

Be it Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:

That the following amendment to Article XVI of the Constitution of the State of Florida be and it is hereby agreed to and shall be submitted to the electors of the State at the general election, to be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November A. D. 1906, for ratification or rejection:

Section 32. The Governor, the Comptroller, the State Treasurer, the Attorney General and the Commissioner of Agriculture of the State of Florida, and their successors in office, are hereby constituted and designated as a board of drainage commissioners, and are hereby authorized and empowered to establish a system of canals, drains, levees, dikes and reservoirs of such dimension and depths, as in the judgment of said board of drainage commissioners is deemed advisable, to drain and reclaim the swamp and overflowed lands within the State of Florida, or such parts or portions thereof as is deemed best by said board of drainage commissioners from time to time, and to provide for the irrigation of the lands reclaimed, and to maintain such canals, drains, levees, dikes, and reservoirs in such manner as will be most advantageous to the territory so drained, the State of Florida, its inhabitants and the commerce thereof.

Section 33. That the board of drainage commissioners are* hereby authorized and empowered to establish drainage districts and fix the boundaries thereof in the State of Florida. That the board of drainage commissioners be and it is authorized and empowered to prepare a list or lists of all the alluvial or swamp and overflowed taxable lands within such drainage district or districts, and levy thereon an acreage tax not exceeding ten cents per acre per annum to be fixed annually by said board of drainage commissioners, and the various tax assessors of the various counties embraced in part or in whole within such drainage district or districts shall receive such list or lists and enter the same upon the tax rolls of the county or counties in which such lands may lie and the amount so levied by the board of drainage commissioners in such manner and form as may be prescribed by the Board of Drainage Commissioners from time to time, which amounts shall be collected by the various tax collectors of the counties wherein such levies have been made as other taxes are collected in accordance with law, and pay over said amounts collected to the Board of Drainage Commissioners, said commissioners shall have a lien superior to all other liens upon the taxable lands in any such drainage districts to be enforced by tax levy, for the cost of any work done under the provisions hereof, or done, prior to the adoption of this amendment, under the provisions of an act of the Legislature passed in 1905.

Section 34. That the Board of Drainage Commissioners be and it is authorized to exercise the right of eminent domain in the condemnation of land for the location of its canals, drains, levees, dikes and reservoirs for the purposes aforesaid and may enter upon, take and use such land as it may, pending condemnation proceedings, deem necessary for such purposes, and in ascertaining the compensation to be paid for such land or right of way, benefits to be derived from such drainage shall be considered by the jury.

Section 35. The Legislature may provide for the assessment of benefits derived by lands by reason of such drainage, and the collection thereof; the proceeds therefrom shall be paid to the Board of Drainage Commissioners to be used by them for such drainage purposes.

Approved May 27, 1905.

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HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION Proposing an Amendment to Section 1, of Article XVII of the Constitution of the State of Florida.

Be it Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:

That the following amendment to the Constitution of the State of Florida be, and the same is hereby agreed to and shall be submitted to the electors of the State at the general election in 1906 for ratification or rejection:

Section 1. Either branch of the Legislature, at a regular session thereof, may propose amendments to this Constitution; and if the same be agreed to by three-fifths of all the members elected to each house, such proposed amendments shall be entered upon their respective Journals with the yeas and nays and shall be published in one newspaper in each county where a newspaper is published, for one month immediately preceding the next general election of Representatives, at which election the same shall be submitted to the electors of the State, for approval or rejection. If a majority of the electors voting upon the amendments at such election shall adopt the amendments the same shall become a part of the Constitution. The proposed amendments shall be so submitted as to enable the electors to vote on each amendment separately. All amendments adopted at the election at which this is submitted or heretofore adopted by the electors are hereby declared a part of the Constitution from the date of the adoption of the same.

Approved June 6, 1905.