The Amendments in Plain English
October 19th, 2008
By John Johnston
Editorial
Tuesday’s ballot originally had nine proposed constitutional amendments. The Florida Supreme Court removed amendments 5, 7 and 9. Following are the proposed amendments that will voters will act upon Tuesday – each requiring a 60 percent supermajority to be approved – and followed by the plain English explanation of each.
Amendment One: Proposing an amendment to the State Constitution to delete provisions authorizing the Legislature to regulate or prohibit the ownership, inheritance, disposition, and possession of real property by aliens ineligible for citizenship.
In Plain English: Approval would allow non-citizens, and who are ineligible for citizenship to, and at the same time, own, inherit, and otherwise posses real property in the State of Florida – which of course poses the question: is the real estate industry in such bad shape that we have to eliminate prohibitions that prevent (or at least slow down) South American drug lords from owning Florida real estate?
Amendment Two: This amendment protects marriage as the legal union of only one man and one woman as husband and wife and provides that no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized.
In Plain English: Approval mean that unless you’re a man and woman couple, you can’t get legally married here, and you can’t even get married someplace else and move back because it still won’t be legal here -- and, by the way, don’t try any of that common law stuff either.
Amendment Three: Authorizes the Legislature, by general law, to prohibit consideration of changes or improvements to residential real property that increase resistance to wind damage and installation of renewable energy source devices as factors in assessing the property's value for ad valorem taxation purposes. Effective upon adoption, repeals the existing renewable energy source device exemption no longer in effect.
In Plain English: Approval would prohibit your friendly county appraiser from using wind damage resistors (like a much stouter roof) and alternative energy contraptions, (like solar panels), to increase your property’s value, and thus increase your property taxes.
Amendment Four: Requires the legislature to provide a property tax exemption for real property encumbered by perpetual conservation easements or other perpetual conservation protections, defined by general law. Requires Legislature to provide for classification and assessment of land used for conservation purposes, and not perpetually encumbered, solely on the basis of character or use. Subjects assessment benefit to conditions, limitations, and reasonable definitions established by general law. Applies to property taxes beginning in 2010.
In Plain English: Approval would open the door for every Tom, Dick and Mary tree hugger (and then everyone else, once they figured it out) to shoehorn his or her land into having a permanent conservation easement, and then thereby receive a property tax exemption – which, if approved, would mean that in short order there wouldn’t be a single square inch of ground to stomp out even a non-filtered cigarette.
Amendment Six: Provides for assessment based upon use of land used predominantly for commercial fishing purposes; land used for vessel launches into waters that are navigable and accessible to the public; marinas and drystacks that are open to the public; and water-dependent marine manufacturing facilities, commercial fishing facilities, and marine vessel construction and repair facilities and their support activities, subject to conditions, limitations, and reasonable definitions specified by general law.
In Plain English: Approval would create a special (and presumably lower) tax assessment on Florida’s working waterfront property – to provide an incentive for those waterfronts to remain working and active -- as opposed to being sold for the next “I wanna be Trump” condo complex.
Amendment Eight: Proposing an amendment to the State Constitution to require that the Legislature authorize counties to levy a local option sales tax to supplement community college funding; requiring voter approval to levy the tax; providing that approved taxes will sunset after 5 years and may be reauthorized by the voters.
In Plain English: Approval would allow counties to, and after voter approval in that county, add a community college tax – which taxes would die the sunset death in five years, unless voters agree to get on that same merry-go-round again.
Now get out there Tuesday and vote.
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