Beware anti-tax temptation on this year’s state ballot

It’s hard to tell whether the Constitution Revision Commission or the Legislature has played more mischief with Florida’s governing document.

The commission this week announced eight proposed amendments for the November ballot. Commissioners lumped unpopular ideas like more power for charter schools with potentially more appealing ideas like civics education and school board term limits. You must vote for all, not just one. We expected such tricks from a panel stacked with ideological appointees of Gov. Rick Scott and House Speaker Richard Corcoran.

But legislators also put two bad amendments on the ballot. Each is tempting enough to pass on its own. Both, however, could hurt government at every level.

One proposal would require a two-thirds vote in the Florida House and Senate to authorize or raise any state tax or fee. The other would add $25,000 to the homestead exemption for all taxes except those for schools.

For 20 years, since Jeb Bush became governor, the Republicans who control Tallahassee have tried to look like taxcutters. Bush got the Legislature to end the intangibles tax on non-IRA investment accounts. Scott cut the water management district budgets, which could threaten their ability to control flooding.

Charlie Crist, who came between Bush and Scott, presided over a doubling of the homestead exemption to $50,000. But though the Obama administration’s economic stimulus sent the state nearly $9 billion combined in 2009 and 2010, Crist and the Legislature still had to raise vehicle fees to balance the budget during the recession and avoid even greater cuts. In better times, Scott made a big point of restoring them to previous levels and calling it a cut.

There was bipartisan, if reluctant, support for raising the vehicle fees. If the twothirds amendment passes, however, voters will have installed minority rule for the Legislature’s most important function. Even if a tax increase or fee became necessary, 41 of 120 House members or 14 of 40 senators could block it.

Why does that matter? Consider the Oklahoma teachers strike.

A Brookings Institution report noted that the last teacher walkout had come in 1990. In response, the state legislature approved a tax increase for education. In a counter response, anti-tax legislators got voters in 1992 to amend the state constitution and require a 75 percent majority in both chambers for any revenue increase.

From 1992 until 2017, not one proposal to raise taxes or fees passed. During that time, education spending in Oklahoma dropped 28 percent. Teacher pay was the nation’s lowest. Twenty percent of state school districts operate on a four-day week. Imagine the hassle for working parents trying to find child care for the fifth day.

Though Oklahoma legislators this year finally approved revenue increases for teacher raises, they wouldn’t tax wealthier residents to produce added money for schools. That decision prompted the strike, which mostly ended this week.

Could Florida face a similar crisis? Teacher strikes have happened, even though they’re illegal. Over the last two decades, under GOP rule, Tallahassee has eaten away at traditional public schools. Charter and voucher schools are the favored children.

Scott, now running for the U.S. Senate, boasts of record education funding in next year’s budget. Take out the money for school safety and counselors, however, and there’s just a 47-cent per-pupil overall increase. Worse, the Legislature shifted $56 million in classroom spending from urban counties to rural counties.

One could argue that Florida never would approach Oklahoma on shorting education. Political extremism that drives out compromise, however, threatens government everywhere. Allowing one-third of the Legislature plus one to dictate policy could bring all manner of gridlock.

Consider if Palm Beach County had a similar threshold. In 2004 and 2010, the county held sales-tax referendums to finance some of the school construction and maintenance spending the Legislature had withheld. Both passed comfortably, but neither got even 60 percent.

Then there’s the added homestead exemption. Supporters will tout it as a tax cut. For some, it would be. But not for owners of commercial property or second homes. And all residents might have to pay more if the tax rate went up to avoid service cuts.

The Florida Constitution has become a place for making partisan policy, not changes to the structure of government. Oklahoma has shown Florida what can happen when the consequences arrive.