Last week we started working through the passel of convoluted amendments on your ballot this year — breaking down the legalese and political mumbo-jumbo into plain English.
Today we finish them up.
The Legislature wrote them. I'll translate them. You decide how to vote.
Amendment 6. Abortion. The main thing this amendment tries to do is waive a woman's right to privacy with regard to abortion. Republican legislators want more hurdles to abortions. But the state constitution's privacy protections have made that difficult. So lawmakers want those protections weakened. Current laws already ban public money from being spent on abortions, except in cases such as rape and incest. But this would enshrine that ban in the constitution. This would also expand that principle to impact publicly funded health-care plans. Basically, vote yes if you think women seeking an abortion should lose their state-protected right to privacy, and if you want to strengthen and expand existing laws that already ban public spending on abortions.
Amendment 7. Tricked ya. There is no 7. And it's not just because Florida struggles with math. It's because the courts ruled that the first version of the Legislature's desire to give tax money to religious groups was too misleading. Which brings us to …
Amendment 8. Money for religious groups. Right now, the constitution says no tax dollars should be spent on "any church, sect or religious denomination." Legislators want to change that, saying some religious nonprofits perform services so well that they deserve state contracts. Opponents note that religious groups already get contracts when their main purpose is performing social services. (Think hospice, for instance.) Also possibly at stake are schools. Some legislators want to make it easier to provide publicly funded vouchers at religious schools. Vote yes if you think tax dollars should go to religious groups.
Amendment 9. Tax breaks for widows and widowers of military service members or first responders. In a nutshell, this amendment says that men and women who lost their spouses in the line of duty would not have to pay property taxes on their primary residences. The estimated financial impact is negligible.
Amendment 10. Tax breaks for businesses. This would double the tax exemption on tangible personal property (such as furniture, signs and basic equipment businesses use to earn income) from $25,000 to $50,000. The extra tax breaks are expected to cost local governments about $20 million a year. That's not massive, statewide. But the money must come from somewhere. So vote yes, if you want to give small businesses that extra break — and are willing to either cut services or increase your own taxes to pay for it.
Amendment 11. Tax breaks for low-income seniors who've owned their houses for at least 25 years. That long title pretty much explains it. We're talking total property-tax breaks for people 65 or older who have lived in their homes valued at $250,000 or less for more than 25 years and make less than $27,030. And counties and cities would have to individually approve this measure. Vote yes if you want older, poorer homeowners to get the break — and think it's worth the $9 million it could cost local governments in a year.
Amendment 12. Student representation on Florida's statewide university board. The state board of governors already includes a student rep: the head of the Florida Student Association. But apparently legislators want a new way to select that student. So they want to create another layer of government — a council of student-body presidents — and have that group's leader serve on the board. If you're still confused, you're not alone. Still, if you think this new student board needs to be enshrined in the state constitution, vote yes.
smaxwell@tribune.com or 407-420-6141
