Reform Commission: Opportunity Wasted in Florida

The official seal of the Florida Supreme Court is set directly under the court's rotunda. In it is the court's motto: "Sat Cito Si Recte." Translated from Latin: "Soon enough if correct."

The court's unanimous decision to remove three amendments from the November ballot came soon enough indeed. The court heard oral arguments Wednesday morning. Less than five hours later, a one-page ruling was issued. Justices did not give their reasons for rejecting the amendments - those will come later. The election is two months away, and it's more urgent that election supervisors know what must be included on the ballot.

But the pointed questions from judges revealed the reasons the amendments were removed: The ballot language was misleading, and the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, which authored the three amendments, overstepped its authority.

"No motion for rehearing will be entertained," the justices tersely wrote, adding, "Opinion to follow."

Amendment 5 would have offered a multibillion-dollar tax-swap deal to voters. Local property taxes for schools, which make up about 25 percent of the tax bill, would be eliminated. Replacing the estimated $10 billion in lost revenue would be up to the Legislature. But the amendment only obligated the Legislature to replace the revenue during the amendment's first budget year.'LIMITED WARRANTY'"The way I read this [ballot language] is, it's a quid pro quo: We're going to reduce your property taxes, but we're going to guarantee that there's going to be a replacement [for the lost school revenues]," said Justice Charles Wells. "But then I find out - unfortunately, like some warranties - that it is not a lifetime warranty. It's a limited warranty."

Amendment 7 would have stricken the 140-year-old ban on the direct state funding of religious institutions, including religious schools. Justice Barbara Pariente noted that the title of the amendment, "Religious Freedom" was "as far afield as you can get" from the Reform Commission's duty of "taxation and budget reform." If vouchers fell into those categories, she said, anything could.

Amendment 9's ballot title was downright misleading. Had it appeared on the ballot, voters would have seen this summary: "Requires at least 65 percent of school funding received by school districts be spent on classroom instruction, rather than administration; allows for differences in administrative expenditures by district."PLAYING THE NAME GAMEWhat wasn't said was more important - a fact not missed by the justices. The amendment would have also invalidated a Supreme Court decision that struck down the use of vouchers for students in failing schools to attend private schools.Justice Fred Lewis said that creating ballotsummaries had become "a game," and added that proposed amendments should be introduced tovoters in straightforward language "so that the people of Florida will know what they're voting on."

The commission had good reason to mislead. A poll taken in June by Quinnipiac University showed that 63 percent of voters would approve the amendment because they favored the classroom-funding mandate. Yet when confronted with the amendment's school-voucher provision, only 38 percent of voters favored it.

It should come as no surprise that the Reform Commission was composed of many supporters of former Gov. Jeb Bush and his education initiatives. The main proponent of Amendment 9 was commission member Patricia Levesque, Bush's former deputy chief of staff. Levesque is the executive director of the Foundation for Florida's Future, a pro-voucher group founded by Bush, who is the foundation's chairman and president.

"There was never any secret as to what they [Reform Commission members] were doing - carrying out the legacy of the former governor," said Ron Meyer, lead attorney for the groups that sued to have the amendment removed from the ballot, to The Miami Herald this summer. "The commission," he added, "has run amok."

It's unfortunate that the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission got hijacked. It only meets every 20 years and had the potential to place amendments directly on the ballot that could have brought true reform to the state's loophole-riddled tax structure. Instead, it ran amok.

What a pitiful legacy.