Category — Florida Supreme Court

The Florida Supreme Court today ordered that three of the nine proposed amendments that were set to appear on ballots in November be removed.  Voters will no longer be voting on proposed Amendments 5, 7, and 9.

The most well-known of these is the proposed Amendment 5, sometimes called the “tax-swap amendment”, which, if approved, would have changed the way Florida schools are funded.  Currently, a large portion of education funding comes from state-mandated property taxes.  If passed, Amendment 5 would have eliminated those property taxes.  The funding shortfall would have to be made up by the Legislature, through budget cuts elsewhere, a state sales tax increase, or repealing tax breaks.

If we could trust the Legislature to do the right thing, to cut in the right places, then Amendment 5 might have been a good idea;  but, of course, we can’t trust them.  If Amendment 5 had passed, we’d get more property tax relief, but we’d just have to make it up elsewhere, in new taxes or more service cuts.

Also removed from the November ballot was Amendment 7, which has been spun by sneaky Republicans as a measure to reaffirm or codify religious freedom (which, incidentally, is already codified in Florida law).  Of course, that’s not what the amendment was really about.  If passed, Amendment 7 would have ended prohibitions against using public money directly or indirectly in aid of any church or religious organization.  Basically, it would have allowed the Legislature to use taxpayer money to fund faith-based or church-operated programs and services.  I’m not okay with my tax dollars going to private religious organizations.  Even if this had stayed on the ballot and passed, it wouldn’t have made it past the first legal challenge.  The amendment, in my opinion and that of others, would have violated the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, which is a no-no.

Lastly, the Court axed Amendment 9 from the ballot, a measure which if passed would have allowed so called “school voucher” programs to be financed by public money (your tax dollars would pay for some children to go to private schools which are not accountable to any goverment) and would have required that 65 percent of school funding received by school districts be spent on classroom instruction, rather than administration, which realistically is already the case almost everywhere.

The Court found that the title and ballot summary of all three proposed amendments was misleading.  Amendments 7 and 9 were added to the ballot by the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission; the Supreme Court ruled the Commission overstepped its authority in adding the proposed amendments, as they do not deal directly with taxation.

Links

• Vote Smart Florida: Amendment 5
• Vote Smart Florida: Amendment 7
• Vote Smart Florida: Amendment 9
• AARP: “Amendment 5 tax plan only buys trouble for Florida”
• GiveMe5Florida.com