Judge Rejects Florida's Tax-Cutting Amendment

In a stunning ruling for Gov. Crist and the Florida Legislature, Circuit Judge Charles A. Francis has ruled their new Tax Relief amendment is unconstitutionally misleading and removed it from the ballot for January 2008. In his written ruling, Judge Francis referenced the ballot summary stating "the amendment would preserve existing property tax breaks", when in actuality, it phases them out. In particular, the Judge said voters are given little and inaccurate information with regards to the current Save Our Homes amendment and are "led to believe it is preserved or revised". The reality is the proposed amendment is designed to eventually get rid of the existing Save Our Homes protections which limit tax assessment increases on homesteaded properties to no more than 3 percent a year.

Judge Francis did uphold a separate part of the law which did not require voter approval. It requires cities and counties to roll back and cap taxes and can only be overridden by local governing bodies with a super majority vote. Florida's lawmakers in Tallahassee can now try to appeal the decision, rewrite the ballot summary to meet the judge's objections or refer the issue to the constitutional Taxation and Budget Reform Commission for review and revision. No decision has been made at this time, but Gov. Crist and legislative leaders have issued statements saying their efforts to cut taxes are not over. All they have to do is come together and act. However, right now they can't even decide on whether or not to add it to next week’s special legislative budget session. It will be interesting to see how they decide to proceed.

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