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August 14, 2002
TALLAHASSEE -- Opponents of a ballot measure that would give a legislative panel the power to wipe out sales tax exemptions argued Tuesday that it shouldn't go to voters because it is misleading.
Attorneys for groups that oppose the measure argued before Circuit Judge Nikki Clark for knocking the measure off the November ballot. Clark also heard from a lawyer for the state Senate, which pushed the measure. She didn't say when she might rule.
The measure would create a panel of 12 lawmakers to look at more than 300 sales tax exemptions over three years and decide whether any should be eliminated.
If seven members of the panel voted to get rid of an exemption, the Legislature would have two years to override that decision. The governor would have no say.
Opponents argue that the ballot summary fails to tell voters the decisions of the panel are final if not overturned by the full Legislature. And they say it misleadingly says the committee will "review" exemptions, as opposed to saying it could eliminate them.
"It doesn't say anywhere in there . . . what the principle change in the Constitution is," said Michael Rosen, a lawyer for the Florida Farm Bureau. "This effectively confers lawmaking power on a committee. . . . The voting public is not being provided with the whole truth."
Barry Richard, a lawyer for the state Senate, countered that "this summary tells the voters exactly what it would do": change the Constitution to create a joint legislative committee to review exemptions and provide recommendations to the Legislature.
The summary says the amendment "requires committee decisions to deauthorize any exemption or exclusion which are approved by a majority of the committee membership to be presented to the Legislature as a resolution, not subject to gubernatorial veto."
Lawmakers voted this year to put the measure on the ballot after a broader effort to revamp the tax structure by Senate President John McKay failed.