A Tallahassee judge has ordered the state to rewrite the ballot language for the proposed property tax reduction constitutional amendment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn summary, voters are entitled to a fair, clear, accurate and non-misleading ballot statement to assist them in making their critical determination,\u201d wrote Judge David Frank. \u201cThe present ballot language would deprive the voters of the opportunity to make a meaningful decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ultimate ballot language will be seen by voters in the November general election. The amendment will pass if at least 60% of voters approve it.<\/p>\n
The Legislature had a special session to create the proposed constitutional amendment. Gov. Ron DeSantis called the special session, and his office drafted most of the proposal wording, though lawmakers changed parts of it and made the reduction less far-reaching.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s still a big deal. Not just for homeowners who could save tax money, but for local governments who say the loss of revenue will make it harder to provide important local services.<\/p>\n
The ruling can be appealed, but the clock\u2019s ticking, since the state says the ballot needs to be finalized by the end of this month.<\/p>\n
A Florida Department of State spokesperson said the state doesn\u2019t comment on pending litigation.<\/p>\n
State Attorney General James Uthmeier has 10 days to revise the ballot language. Any legal challenge to the revised language would have to come within 10 days after that.<\/p>\n
Uthmeier\u2019s office didn\u2019t immediately respond to WUSF.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this is an issue that everyone wants on the ballot, and I think it is, it should be fixed, and it should be fixed properly,\u201d said Jamie Cole, an attorney for some of those suing the state over the original wording. \u201cAnd there\u2019s no reason we can\u2019t get that done before the end of the month, so it gets before the voters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Plaintiffs include the group Save Our Voters From Misleading Ballot Language, two former mayors, former Democratic U.S. Rep. Al Lawson and former Florida Republican Sen. Jeff Brandes, who has since created a policy think tank.<\/p>\n
In his ruling, Frank said the ballot title alone is problematic. It reads \u201cSave Our Homes From Excessive Property Taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe title is more akin to a political slogan,\u201d Frank wrote. \u201cIt is not fair or neutral.\u201d<\/p>\n
He went on to identify a multitude of phrases he said needed to be changed for the ballot, including that it would lead to the full elimination of non-school property taxes on homestead property.<\/p>\n
That line has created a significant debate. Even top lawmakers said different things about whether this would allow lawmakers to require even greater property tax reductions without voters\u2019 approval.<\/p>\n
Frank had this to say: \u201cBut the actual proposed constitutional language does not require \u2018full elimination,’\u201d he wrote. \u201cRather, it would require the Legislature to establish procedures through which local governments may choose to grant additional exemptions in the future \u2018up to\u2019 the full assessed valuation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frank also took issue with lines like \u201cEnsuring funding for core services,\u201d \u201cProtecting small businesses\u201d and \u201cEnsuring fairness for Florida residents.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe purpose of a ballot summary is to explain what an amendment would do, not to advocate for its adoption,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s more. Read the rest of Frank\u2019s opinion here.<\/p>\n
Douglas Soule is a reporter for WUSF, the bay area\u2019s NPR affiliate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Tallahassee judge has ordered the state to rewrite the ballot language for the proposed property tax reduction…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-363761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}