Florida Rewrites Property Tax Amendment Language

Ryan, Dana, and Nathalie Rodriguez discuss Gov. Ron DeSantis saying Florida will move forward with rewriting Amendment 3 ballot language after a judge ruled the original wording defective, and what the changes mean for voters.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:07):
Good Morning, Natalie, Good morning. While Governor Desanta says our
state is not going to find a judge's rule in
concerning the ballot language for Amendment three, state officials are
working to revise the texts and they've got to do
it by the end of the month in order for
it to print in time for the November election. He
spoke from Lehigh Acres commenting on the situation, confirming that

(00:29):
the Attorney General's office is in fact involved in revising
the summary, which is what they're supposed to do. The
original text for the property tax measure was reviewed by
Leon County Judge, and Governor Desantas stated that he has
seen drafts of the new language and that it will
in fact aim for clarity for voters, which should have
done from the beginning. The revised language is subject to

(00:50):
further review, of course, by the Circuit Court and those involved.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
Yeah, there was a question as to whether or not
the state might appeal that decision about the ballot language,
but look, they knew this is just obvious. Yeah, the
title save our Homes from Excessive Property taxes. Now, look,
I could certainly make a case that property taxes are
excessive here in Florida, but it's not the role of

(01:15):
the title of a property tax amendment being put on
the ballot to make that case. It's the role of
that amendment to just lay out the amendment does. So
you would think it would be something along the lines
of reducing property taxes here in Florida, something like that.
So they clean up the verbiage, it'll end up on
the ballot. Then the question becomes does it pass or not?

(01:37):
And there was a new poll that came out. The
James Madison Institute did this one, and it was interesting.
We're seeing this with a couple of polls, and again,
I think you take all of these with the grain
of salt. I think this is going to end up
being a close vote because when you're asking people whether
or not they want to save themselves some money, I mean,
it's kind of a hard thing to say no to,
let's be honest, and people their budgets are tight here

(01:59):
in Florida the these days. But what this poll found
that the pass polls have found too, is that there's
a lot of support for the amendment when it's just about,
you know, lowering your property taxes. Initial support for the
amendment seventy four percent among registered voters, seventy six percent
among likely voters, well over that's sixty percent threshold needed

(02:20):
to pass. But then when they start to hear that,
public officials around the state, elected officials are saying, we
might have to cut this, We might have to cut that.
You've got Polk County Sheriff Grady jug coming out saying
vote no on the amendment. It could impact public safety. Well,
support among likely voters fell to fifty five percent. Registered
voters fifty five percent as well, so you can see

(02:43):
a big shift there. It's much more in favor among Republicans.
They support it even after the trade offs are explained
by a number of seventy percent to thirty percent. Among
independents it drops to fifty percent, Democrats thirty six percent.
So I think it's going to be close, but you
can see as the case gets made against it, it

(03:06):
could have an impact and it could drop support below
that sixty percent threshold.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
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