Breaking: Florida Supreme court tosses 3 amendments from ballot (Jeb's stealth voucher amendments)

[seafan]

Amendments 5, 7, and 9 go down in flames! Oh, happy day!


Supreme court tosses 3 amendments from ballot

By JIM SAUNDERS
TALLAHASSEE BUREAU CHIEF

September 3, 2008

TALLAHASSEE --- The Florida Supreme Court today rejected three proposed constitutional amendments that would have cut property taxes and helped clear the way for taxpayer-funded vouchers.
Justices, in an unusual move, issued unanimous orders just hours after holding a hearing on the controversial amendments proposed by the state’s Taxation and Budget Reform Commission.
During the hearing, justices hammered attorneys about whether the commission overstepped its authority in placing the voucher amendments on the ballot and used misleading language in the property-tax amendment.

The tax measure, known as Amendment 5, called for eliminating billions of dollars in property taxes that are used to fund the day-to-day operations of public schools. In exchange, it would have required lawmakers to come up with other money during the 2010-11 fiscal year to make up the lost property taxes.
But justices repeatedly questioned whether the proposed ballot language would mislead voters. They said it did not make clear that lawmakers would not be required to offset the lost education money in later years.
"The average person is going to read this and say, ‘OK, those property taxes are gone. But the state is going to put that same amount of money into the school system. I don’t have anything to worry about,’ " Chief Justice Peggy Quince said.

Justice Charles Wells said the amendments reads like a "quid pro quo type of thing" for cutting property taxes. But he said the amendment didn’t give permanent guarantees for funding education. .....
One of the voucher amendments, known as Amendment 7, would have repealed part of the constitution that bars the use of state money in "aid" of churches or religious institutions. The amendment, if passed, could have helped clear the way for taxpayer-funded vouchers to be used in private religious schools.

The other voucher-related amendment, known as Amendment 9, would have changed part of the constitution that the Supreme Court used in 2006 to strike down former Gov. Jeb Bush’s school-voucher program. That part of the constitution deals with how the state will make "adequate provision" for public schools.