Article
Courtesy of The Tampa Bay Times
By
Elizabeth Koh
Published June 19, 2018
When Floridians head to the ballot box in November, they
will encounter a list of candidates asking for their vote for seats in the
state House to the U.S. Senate. Among the choices they must make will also
be one of the longest lists of proposed constitutional changes in decades,
from betting on dog racing to implementing a ban on public officials
lobbying for six years after they leave office.
The 13 constitutional amendments on this year's ballot are the most since
1998, when the state's Constitution Revision Commission — which meets once
every 20 years — put nine of 13 amendments on the ballot. The Constitution
Revision Commission convened this year and place eight amendments on the
ballot.
In some cases, measures have been grouped together, meaning voters will have
to choose to approve or reject disparate proposals that have been linked in
one amendment. Floridians will have to decide if they want to ban both
vaping indoors and offshore oil and gas drilling, and if they want to
require Miami-Dade to elect its sheriff and create a state counter-terrorism
office and add an existing veterans affairs department to the constitution.
To be approved, any constitutional amendment requires 60
percent of the vote. Here's what this year's amendments do:
Amendment 1, Increased Homestead Property Tax Exemption would raise the
portion of a home's value that can be exempted from non-school property
taxes. The Legislature voted to refer the exemption to the ballot in 2017,
and the proposed changes would apply to the assessed value of a homestead
property between $100,000 and $125,000, raising the maximum exemption to
$75,000.
The shift could save homeowners a couple hundred dollars, but a legislative
staff analysis estimated local governments — which rely on property taxes
for revenue — would lose about $645 million in the first year if the
exemption, effective Jan. 1, is approved.
Amendment 2, Limitations on Property Tax Assessments, another property tax
proposal referred by the Legislature, would cement an existing cap on
non-homestead property assessments. Such property tax assessment increases
have been limited to 10 percent of the previous year's assessed value since
2008, when another constitutional amendment that capped the increases
passed.
Amendment 3, Voter Control of Gambling in Florida, a citizen-initiated
amendment, would give voters the exclusive right to decide to authorize
expansions of casino gambling in Florida. That authority currently rests
with both the Legislature and voters, through constitutional amendment.
Card games, casino games and slot machines are limited to tribal facilities
in most of Florida, though some slot machines are allowed at certain
pari-mutuel facilities in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Though the
Legislature has tried in recent years to pass gambling bills that would
address the state's agreement with the Seminole Tribe and allow for some
expansion of casinos, negotiations have repeatedly broken down as the House,
which is more opposed to gambling, rejected the Senate's proposals.
Amendment 4, Voting Restoration Amendment, another petition-drive amendment,
would restore voting rights to former felons if they have served their time,
with the exception of those who have committed crimes like murder or sex
offenses. For the past seven years, the state has required that ex-felons
wait at least five years after their sentences are complete to apply to
regain voting rights. The current process can take a decade or more under
the Scott administration's requirement that a state clemency board consider
each request during their four meetings a year.
In addition to the challenge posed by the amendment, the system is the
subject of an ongoing, protracted legal battle. U.S. District Judge Mark
Walker in March struck down the vote restoration system for felons as so
arbitrary as to be unconstitutional, but the state won a stay of his
injunction as an appeal goes to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
Atlanta.
Arguments in the legal case are expected to be heard in July, but the case
is unlikely to be resolved before voters cast their ballots in November. If
passed, about 1.5 million people in Florida could be affected.
Amendment 5, Super-majority Vote Required to Impose, Authorize, or Raise
State Taxes or Fees, another proposal from lawmakers this year, would
require a two-thirds super-majority vote in the Legislature to impose,
approve or raise state taxes and fees. The higher threshold means it would
take only a third of members in either the state House or Senate to block
any future tax increases or repeal existing exemptions. The idea, floated by
Gov. Rick Scott last year, would also stop any provisions to raise taxes or
fees from being tacked onto other state bills, and does not apply to any
fees or taxes that would be levied by local governments or agencies, such as
school districts.
The last eight amendments on this year's ballot come from the Constitution
Revision Commission. The commission chose about 20 proposals for this year's
ballot but decided to "group" distinct proposals together into eight
amendments, meaning that in some cases voters must approve or reject
multiple proposals in batches.
The bundling, a technique that has been used before, is controversial.
Critics have charged that the way ideas were linked was politically
motivated, to "log-roll" less popular ideas to more favorable ones to
succeed. But the chair of the commission's powerful Style and Drafting
Committee, Brecht Heuchan, a Scott appointee, has contended the groupings
will make it easier for voters to read and save time.
Amendment 6, Rights of Crime Victims; Judges, the first of the CRC items,
links three proposals that create a bill of rights for crime victims and set
new requirements for judges. The bill of rights, modeled after Marsy's Law
in California, has the support of major Republican and Democratic lawmakers
but has drawn criticism that the way victims' rights are drawn might flood
the justice system with additional responsibilities.
The latter two proposals increase the mandatory retirement age for judges to
75 from 70, effective July 1, 2019, and would bar judges from deferring to
administrative agencies' interpretations of a rule or statute when ruling in
cases involving those laws.
Amendment 7, First Responder and Military Member Survivor Benefits; Public
Colleges and Universities, would pull together three proposals, providing
college tuition for the survivors of first responders and military members
killed on duty, requiring university trustees to agree by a two-thirds
super-majority to raise college fees (not including tuition) and
establishing the state college system in the Florida Constitution.
Universities are in the state Constitution, but state colleges (also known
as community colleges) are not.
Amendment 8, School Board Term Limits and Duties; Public Schools, rolls
together three education-related proposals, though some are more popular
than others. It links new eight-year school board term limits, as well as
expanded civics education in public schools, to a controversial plan to
enable charter schools to bypass local school boards by expanding the
state's authority to control and supervise them. Supporters of the amendment
say the language would ensure charter schools are not unfairly denied,
though opponents allege it would shrink local boards' autonomy and
oversight.
Amendment 9, Prohibits Offshore Oil and Gas Drilling; Prohibits Vaping in
Enclosed Indoor Workplaces, would tether a ban on oil and gas drilling in
state-owned waters with a proposal to add vaping to the ban on smoking
indoors.
Amendment 10, State and Local Government Structure and Operation, would link
four proposals: one to have the state's legislative session start in January
rather than March in even-numbered years (the legislature currently changes
its dates by statute), two that would create a counter-terrorism office and
make the state veterans affairs department constitutionally required, and a
proposal that would require five county-level offices to be elected.
All of the county positions — including tax collectors, property appraisers,
supervisors of elections and clerks of circuit court — are already elected
in many counties. But the office of sheriff singles out Miami-Dade, which is
the only county that does not elect a sheriff and instead has an appointed
police director.
Amendment 11, Property Rights; Removal of Obsolete Provision; Criminal
Statutes, would revise the Constitution to remove some language, including a
provision that stops "aliens ineligible for citizenship" from owning
property and wording approving a high-speed rail system. It would also
clarify that repealing a criminal statute would not retroactively affect the
prosecution of a crime committed previously.
Amendment 12, Lobbying and Abuse of Office by Public Officers, a stand-alone
proposal, would bar public officials from lobbying both during their terms
and for six years following, and restrict current public officers from using
their office for personal gain.
Amendment 13, Ends Dog Racing, is also a single proposal. It would end
commercial dog racing involving wagering by 2020. There are about a dozen
tracks in Florida, and the practice has drawn criticism from animal rights
advocates who assert that the practice is inhumane. The Florida Greyhound
Association has sued seeking to remove the amendment from the ballot.
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