Florida Commission Reverses Course, Adds Second Voucher Initiative to Ballot
Despite criticism for the proposal, and for considering an about-face, Florida's Taxation and Budget Commission has added a second voucher-related proposal to the November ballot, after originally voting it down. The Miami Herald reports on the sketchy vote-trading that resulted in the change of heart.
The voucher proposal will be rolled into one amendment with the so-called 65 percent solution, which would force school districts to spend at least that percentage of their budgets in the classroom.Both ideas have been repeatedly rejected by the Legislature, blasted by critics as far removed from the panel's mission and rejected as recently as two weeks ago by the 25-member commission.
But when the commission gave final approval to its hallmark piece of tax reform on Thursday -- a plan to lower all property taxes by about 25 percent and force Tallahassee to make up the money with sales taxes and other revenue -- key opposition to the education schemes disappeared.
Three members switched their votes, including tax swap author John McKay, and the panel voted 19-6 for the voucher amendment. It takes a supermajority of 17 votes to put an amendment to voters.
The voucher amendment is the second proposal the commission has placed on the ballot designed to reverse the court ruling in Bush v. Holmes, the landmark voucher case. The other proposal would remove language from the Constitution that bans using tax dollars for religious-based schools and institutions.