Separating the constitutional wheat from the chaff: legislators plan to look at the state's governing document with an eye toward removing the extraneous.

Florida lawmakers appeared headed toward a serious effort to streamline the state constitution.

The respective judiciary committees of the House and Senate met October 19 to begin the task of separating what they see as the constitutional wheat from the chaff.

The review is an off-expressed goal of Senate Judiciary Chair Daniel Webster, R-Winter Garden, and he and House Judiciary Committee Chair David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, expressed determination to accomplish the task this year.

"We're going to undertake the revision process with Sen. Webster and the Judiciary Committee in the Senate," Simmons said. He noted members had been given examples of other state charters as well as a "model" constitution.

He asked committee members to compare those documents which had been provided "so we will be able to give it time and attention."

Simmons also anticipated that there would be a meeting of the Senate and House judiciary committees at some point to jointly work out issues.

The committee was given information that since the new state constitution was adopted in 1968--and the rewriting of Art. V on the judiciary was approved in 1972--136 amendments had been proposed, and 102 had been approved by voters.

That includes 71 amendments placed on the ballot by the legislature, 21 by citizen initiatives, two from the constitutionally mandated Tax and Budget Commission, and eight from the constitutionally mandated Constitution Revision Commission.

Of the 31 voter-rejected amendments, 20 were turned down by voters in the 1970s, with amendments since 1980 having a much greater chance of success. (Three amendments were tossed out by the Supreme Court for various infirmities.)

At the Senate meeting, Webster reiterated his pledge from last year that he does not want to rewrite or drastically change basic rights or the structure of government in the constitution, but merely to streamline it because of the addition of so many amendments.

The process, as outlined, would have the...