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Florida Court Blocks Three Amendments from the Ballot

September 4, 2008

The Florida Supreme Court issue a unanimous ruling on September 3 that removed three amendments from the November ballot.  Amendment 5 would have repealed state-required property taxes and left it up to the Legislature to find another source of revenue to fund schools.  Amendment 7 would have permitted the use of public funds in churches and religious institutions.  Amendment 9 would have required that school districts spend 65 percent of their funding on classroom instruction, and would have permitted vouchers for private school tuition.  All three amendments were placed on the ballot by the Florida Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, which meets every 20 years to recommend changes to the state's tax and budget structure.

The court ruled that Amendment 5, which would have cut property taxes by an average of 25 percent, was misleading.  Its ballot language implied that school funding would be protected indefinitely in the future, while the amendment in fact specifies only that the funding must be protected in the 2010-2011 school year.  A coalition of business and education groups opposed Amendment 5.  Its supporters included the Florida Association of Realtors and tax reform advocates.

In the cases of Amendments 7 and 9, the court found that the Commission exceeded its authority in placing the amendments on the ballot.  The justices said that the Commission had no right to constitutionally protect state funding for churches and voucher programs, but instead should limit its scope to the state's tax and budget structure.  With Amendment 9, the court also said that the title did not fully capture the intent of the amendment.  The title addressed only the 65 percent spending requirement, something that most school districts in Florida already meet.  It did not clearly convey the amendment's second purpose, to reverse an earlier Supreme Court ruling that threw out a state-funded private school voucher program.

The ruling came in the nick of time -- the secretary of state must certify the ballot by Friday, September 5.

For m ore information on ballot measures, contact Jennie Drage Bowser in NCSL's Denver office.