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 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 that 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 would 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 lobbyingboth 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.
For information, visit the state Division of Elections website at http://dos.myflorida.com/elections/