Reply #1: Regarding the Florida Amendments on the 2010 ballot:

[seafan]

The short answer is NO on 1 and 8. YES on all the others.



Amendments' descriptions here, and Howard Troxler knows the score.

(3, 7 and 9 were removed from ballot)

Amendment 1 repeals Florida's system of public financing for statewide elections, created in the 1980s and put in the Constitution by the voters in 1998. Candidates for governor and the state Cabinet got $11.1 million in the last statewide cycle in 2006.

The original, reformist idea was to level the playing field against big money. But leaders of the Legislature call it "welfare for politicians." They have made it tougher to get the money in recent years, and now hope the voters will kill it altogether.

My opinion on Amendment 1: Budgeting for, and enforcing publicly-financed elections is the only answer that will put an end to the rampant and secretive spending of billions by unknown, including foreign, entities to influence our elections. Republicans vilify this idea of publicly-financed elections as "welfare for politicians". What they want in its place is the unfettered ability for shadowy, private billionaires to buy off our elections, which is devastating to our democracy. Of course, Republicans want a 'yes' on Amendment 1.

Amendment 2 gives an increased homestead tax exemption (meaning, they have to possess one already) to members of the military and reserves deployed outside the United States. The additional tax break would be based on the number of days of the year they were out of the country.

Amendment 4 is better known as "Hometown Democracy" and might be the fight of the year. Placed on the ballot by petition, it says voters should have final say over amendments to city and county "comprehensive plans," which control growth.

Amendments 5 and 6 also were put on the ballot by citizen petition. Their stated goal is "fair districts" for the Legislature and Congress, saying that districts should not be drawn by the Legislature to "favor or disfavor" one party or incumbent. Opponents say (among other things) that this is impossible to achieve and will automatically throw redistricting into the courts.

Amendment 8 is the Legislature's attempt to change the rules for public school class sizes in Florida that were approved by voters in 2002. The amendment would return to using schoolwide average class sizes instead of a strict per-classroom limit.

My opinion on Amendment 8: This is yet another attempt by the Republican-controlled legislature to water down the voters' desire for smaller class sizes. This has been one of Jeb Bush's "devious plans" since the 1990s. He has never given this obsession up.

Using the 'class average' concept would mean that there could be a class of relatively few students and another class of overflow capacity, that when averaged, you'd think both classes would have an acceptable number of students. Averaging class size numbers is the Republicans' way to hide evidence of larger classes from the public. Of course, the Republicans want a 'yes' on Amendment 8.



Again, the short answer is NO on 1 and 8. YES on all the others.