A whole stack of Constitutional amendments are on the Florida ballot in 2010. These have the potential to make major impacts in the real estate and business community as well as the political system as we know it. This is a quick rundown of what you will see when you go to vote in November along with my commentary and opinions on the issues for whatever that is worth.
Amendment 1: Repeals the requirement that the State of Florida to publicly fund candidates who stay within agreed upon campaign spending limits.
Some of called the law currently on the books "welfare for politicians." The State of Florida is already hurting for funds as it is, so this is one less thing that the public would be responsible for. In lieu of Rick Scott's multi-million dollar governor campaign you have to wonder a little though if this is a good idea.
Amendment 2: Would grant an additional homestead property tax exemption starting in 2011 to deployed military service members.
It is always good to help out the troops especially from burdensome taxes while they are out fighting for our freedoms. I dislike the idea though of continually cluttering up the Florida Constitution with more specialized amendments like this.
Amendment 4: Would require a public vote on any changes to a city or county's comprehensive land use plan.
This is a big one with major political campaigns on both sides of the aisle. The motives behind this amendment do sound good.
City/county commissioners run amok allowing developers to pave over everything in sight. This creates stress on roads, schools, police, and other resources. Not to mention it damages the overall environment and our quality of life. The local politicians are not helping the cause against Amendment 4 when they approve huge city-sized developments like Farmton in the middle of a Volusia County forest or the City of Destiny in extreme rural southern Osceola County.
But the cure the amendment offers could make the economy and quality of life even worse. People who have no clue about the in-depth planning for the region would be voting on all sorts of development projects. This will add on extra costs and additional bureaucracy to an already burdensome system. The Orlando Business Journal did a great write up on Amendment 4 in the September 10-16, 2010 edition with multiple articles, frequently asked questions, and voices from both sides of the aisle. A must read to get all the facts about it. Go to http://orlando.bizjournals.com/orlando and do a search on Amendment 4 for tons more information on this.
I think the idea behind Amendment 4 is a good thing but making the public vote on large stacks of land use plans is the wrong way of going about it. For the record nearly every Realtor association, home builder association, and chamber of commerce in Florida has come out against this amendment.
Amendment 5: Would require Florida state House and Senate legislative districts to be compact, reasonable, and follow city, county, and geographic boundaries. Would prevent the district's shapes from being drawn to favor a particular race, language, incumbent politician, or party affiliation.
The state legislature hates this one, because it might just prevent the Republicans from owning the Florida
legislature. They are saying that the "liberal" courts will be involved with every re-districting decsion. But considering the poor job the state legislature has done, some checks and balances might just be in order.
It puts an end to "gerrymandering" where legislators create odd-shaped districts in order to favor a particular candidate or party. All one has to do is look at the snake-like boundary shapes of Alan Grayson or Corrine Brown to see the abuse that has been going on. The Florida legislature tried to get Amendment 7 on the ballot which would counter-act Amendments 5 and 6 below, but the Florida Supreme Court removed it from the ballot. In my opinion, both Amendment 5 and Amendment 6 are great ideas and will truly level the playing field for both the Democrats and Republicans.
Amendment 6: Does the same thing as Amendment 5 above, but affects federal House legislators. (Amendment 5 is on the state level only.)
Amendment 8: Makes changes to the public school class size amendment. Basically it changes the "maximum" class size to the "average" class size but puts slightly higher figures as the maximum. It also makes a few clarifications regarding virtual class, etc.
The class size amendment is somewhat burdensome on the school system and forces them to be rigid in the size requirements. This helps to relax the standards slightly which in my opinion is a good thing especially during tough economic times.
In case you are wondering, Amendments 3, 7, and 9 were pulled off the ballot.
You can get full details about all these amendments along with ballot summaries and the full text by going to the Florida Division of Elections' website: http://election.dos.state.fl.us/constitutional-amendments/2010-proposed.shtml
Here are a few other sites regarding these amendments as well:
Tallahassee Democrat Orlando Sentinel
Enjoy and don't forget to vote on Tuesday, November 2, 2010.
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