Suit stalls referendum
County hopes to dodge Super Exemption
BY PAM BRANNON Gulf Breeze News news@gulfbreezenews.com

Eric Hersh, mayor of a small south Florida city, is waging a modern day David and Goliath battle that will affect every school board, city hall, county commission, and fire district in Florida. And Hersh just won his first skirmish.

The mayor of Weston, Fla. filed a lawsuit in June asking the courts to remove the tax reform proposal labeled Super Homestead from the Jan. 29 special election ballot that Florida lawmakers had placed there. Last week a Leon County Circuit judge agreed with Hersh's complaints, saying the wording of the proposal is indeed misleading to voters. That judge took the measure off the Jan. 29 ballot. And a collective cautious sigh of relief spread through Florida's county, city, and school board offices from one end of the state to the other.

"My phone has been ringing off the hook with people now wanting to join the lawsuit," Hersh laughed. "Most people didn't think we had a chance of winning even at this level."

Santa Rosa County Administrator Hunter Walker had said if the Super Homestead proposal could be delayed even until the November ballot, it would be a great relief for the county budget. He called the Jan. 29 vote "The Big One," saying if it passed there would be deeper cuts to county coffers than most citizens can even imagine.

"If we could get a reprieve until November even, it would mean we could not have to make such deep cuts in next year's budget and have time to regroup, at least," Walker said.

But immediately after the circuit court ruling the Secretary of State's office in Tallahassee announced the state would appeal. The state is asking the appeals court to send the issue straight to the Florida Supreme Court, due to deadlines looming for the ballot language.

Hersh and his attorneys asked for the issue to be heard by the Florida Supreme Court in the first place, instead of starting at the circuit court level.

Hersh told Gulf Breeze News during a telephone interview this week : "We are not doing anything to block that request of going straight to the supreme court. We agree, that is where it needs to go next, since that is where it will ultimately end up. We are not celebrating at this first little victory. There is a long road still ahead."

Hersh filed the lawsuit in June on his own accord and was not acting on behalf of the City of Weston. His lawsuit claims the ballot language of the Super Homestead proposal is confusing and misleading by not explaining to voters that eventually with the new tax reform the current Save Our Homes would become extinct.

"People think they can choose between Save Our Homes and the new program. And they can at first. But ultimately the Save our Homes will go away, and people do not know that," Hersh said.

Hersh also said the legislators are not following the state constitution with this ballot proposal. Super Homestead is to be a constitutional amendment, and Hersh pointed out that the constitution has steps to becoming amended that this proposal does not follow.

"They want to back into a constitutional amendment. It is unconstitutional to do it this way, at the very least," he said. "And the constitution also says any constitutional amendment is supposed to be placed on a general election ballot, when more people are voting. Not a special election or primary ballot, like Jan. 29."

Hersh was asking that the Super Homestead proposal be pulled from the ballot Jan. 29 and at least re-written and placed on the November ballot.

"I would certainly be one of the first people who says there should be real property tax reform in Florida. But this is not it. Lawmakers passed this whole thing in three days. It was not a good bill," Hersh said.

One state lawmaker called for the legislature to now take up the matter of the ballot language at the special session coming up in two weeks.

Hersh said, "I don't believe they will really do that. It would be great if they would at least re-write this to make it clear, but I don't believe they will bring it up during that session. Why would they spend big taxpayer money to file an appeal with the supreme court, and then spend more time and money re-writing the proposal before that appeal has even been heard? And I think most of them know that if they do re-write it and tell people what is really happening it will definitely fail at the ballot box."

In fact, he said a letter was received this week by lawmakers from Florida House Speaker Ken Pruitt telling lawmakers they should not take time with this proposal during special session since they are scheduled to be working on the capital spending and state budget cuts.

The judge in Leon County did not uphold the entire lawsuit, however.

"He ruled against our contention that the state did not have the authority, under the Florida Constitution, to roll back the millages of counties as they did this year. The constitution says counties can levy up to 10.5 mills, and the state stepped in and told them they could not levy that much in their budgets for next year. We still say the constitution is very clear, so we may file a counter-appeal with the Supreme Court on that issue," Hersh said.

Hersh said he is even hearing from some people connected to legislators.

"It is becoming grossly obvious now to some of the legislators that this is a bad bill, now that they have had time to really look at it and all it means to the future of Florida. And I am hearing that some just want it to be defeated in the court, so they do not have to deal with it," Hersh said. "After all, if they lose at the ballot box or cannot come up with a real property tax reform, then it would be their fault. But if they lose in court, then they can always say 'We tried, but Hersh and the courts stopped us.' They can blame me, and that is OK. As long as they go back to the drawing board and find some real property tax relief and scrap this bill, I would be happy."