News-Press: Tax-swap amendment off Florida ballot

Friday, August 15, 2008

Fate rests in outcome of appeal, Crist says

BY BILL COTERELL

TALLAHASSEE - A circuit judge Thursday threw the tax-swap constitutional amendment off of Florida’s November ballot, saying its legal title and summary do not tell voters what the proposal really does.

Gov. Charlie Crist, a backer of Amendment 5, said Circuit Judge John Cooper’s ruling “doesn’t mean anything” because the Florida Supreme Court ultimately decides what voters get to see in a referendum. An appeal could be filed as early as today.

“Ballot titles and summaries cannot ‘fly under false colors’ or ‘hide the ball,’ as to the proposed amendment’s true effect,” Cooper wrote in his 13-page ruling. “A title and summary may not leave a key term undefined so that the meaning of the proposal is ambiguous or misleading.”

Authored by the Tax and Budget Reform Commission, Amendment 5 would eliminate the required local-effort portion of property taxes for school support and make the Legislature put up equivalent state funds to replace the money for education. If passed, it would cut property taxes an average 25 percent statewide.

A coalition of business and education groups that sued to torpedo the amendment argued the replacement-revenue provision applies only to the 2010-11 fiscal year - but the wording on the ballot does not alert voters lawmakers could appropriate as much or as little as they saw fit in all subsequent years.

Crist said Cooper’s ruling isn’t meaningful because whichever side lost was certain to kick it up to the Supreme Court.

“I was disappointed but not dismayed. It will be appealed - I think everybody knows that,” said Crist. “I hope it stays on the ballot because I like the will of the people. I want them to weigh in. I want them to have that power, because they’re the boss.”

State Sen. Mike Haridopolos, R-Indialantic, has been stumping against Amendment 5. He said Cooper’s ruling as “a reflection of what so many voters have been telling us.”

“The amendment is a bad deal for Florida and a bait-and-switch proposal of the worst kind,” he said. He is in line to become Senate president when the amendment would kick in, and has been publicly warning that the replacement revenue would have to come from an unknown array of taxes and severe spending cuts.

The amendment authorizes a 1 percent increase in the sales tax, which would account for about $4 billion, but opponents said the total revenue loss could be as high as $11 billion.

Attorney Mark Herron and Chief Deputy Solicitor General Louis Hubener defended the amendment in court. Herron predicted supporters will ask the 1st District Court of Appeal to send the case to the Supreme Court. With just 80 days remaining before the election, a swift ruling is needed so supervisors of election can print county ballots.