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Six Amendments Will Be On '08 Ballot

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SUNCOAST NEWS STAFF REPORT

Published: October 15, 2008

On Nov. 4 Florida voters will have to decide the fate of six proposed changes to the state constitution. Each proposed amendment will have to garner at least 60 percent of the vote to be approved.

Amendment 1 would repeal a law permitting Florida to stop people ineligible for U.S. citizenship from owning property. The 1926 anti-alien law, which targeted Asian immigrants, has never been used.

Amendment 2 would define marriage as the legal union between one man and one woman and render other forms of legal union invalid.

Amendment 3 would bar county property appraisers from increasing home property assessments based on improvements designed to make a residence less vulnerable to wind damage.

Amendment 4 would exempt from taxation property dedicated for conservation purposes and kept from development.

Amendment 6 would require county property appraisers to assess land used for commercial fishing purposes based on that use, rather than its potential for other, possibly more valuable, uses.

Amendment 8 would let counties levy a sales tax for up to five years to support community colleges.

The Florida Supreme Court struck amendments 5, 7 and 9 from the ballot this summer.

Amendment 5 would have cut the school portion of local property tax levy and required the Legislature to come up with an alternative. Amendment 7 would have ended the constitutional ban on giving state money to religious institutions, such as a church-affiliated private school. Amendment 9 would have required at least 65 percent of all public school funds be spent in the classroom.

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