VENICE – Discussion of a state constitutional amendment that would legalize recreational marijuana for people age 21 and older and one that would allow for an annual inflation adjustment of a portion of the homestead exemption highlighted a recent panel discussion hosted by South County Tiger Bay.
There are a total of six constitutional amendments slated for the Nov. 5 election, four proposed through action from the state Legislature and two from citizen-led initiatives – the amendment to legalize marijuana and one to guarantee access to abortion.
Amendments must receive at least 60% approval by voters to be placed in the state constitution.
Amendment1 and Amendment 6 – replacing existing laws
Enshrinement in the constitution is no guarantee of permanence though. Amendment 1, which would make district school boards partisan starting in 2026, and Amendment 6, which would repeal public campaign financing for governor and lieutenant governor, attorney general, chief financial officer and agriculture commissioner, would remove provisions placed there following voter approval in 1998.
Those two provisions came from proposals by the 1997 Constitutional Revision Commission, which was empowered in a significantly more bipartisan era than 2024, when Republicans control both the state Legislature and governor’s office.
That revision commission meets once every 20 years, so the next one would be empaneled in 2037.
Republican consultant Jamie Miller, the former executive director of the Florida GOP, handled most of the discussion of both amendments.
Miller said he favors partisan election for all offices – including judgeships – because it lets voters know where a candidate stands.
Sarasota County Sheriff Kurt Hoffman who, along with South County Tiger Bay member Justin Taylor rounded out the three-member panel, said party backing helped raise candidate awareness.
“When parties get involved, and they have the ability to help candidates and support candidates, that would be better for the voter to be informed – my personal opinion,” he added.
Miller said Amendment 6 essentially codifies the legal victory to public campaign finance laws won by U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, who in 2010 outspent then-Attorney General Bill McCollum in the Republican gubernatorial primary, before going on to win two terms as governor.
“This is codifying within our constitution that we’re not going to publicly finance campaigns,” Miller said.
Amendment 3 – legalization of recreational marijuana
With more than a million signatures placing Amendment 3 on the ballot, Hoffman said that while he opposes the legalization of recreational marijuana, he expects it to pass.
Based on discussions he had during his three-day trip to Texas and the U.S.-Mexico border he anticipates federal decriminalization of marijuana as well.
Taylor noted that almost $58 million has been spent in support of Amendment 3 – including $53 million by Trulieve Cannabis Corp., while opponents have mustered up about $3.8 million so far.
Hoffman said that in states where marijuana was legalized statistics showed a significant increase in traffic accidents and fatalities where marijuana was found in the driver’s system.
More recently, Hoffman said he looked at data from Illinois, Michigan and Colorado and saw that emergency visits were also up for accidents in the workplace.
While he said taxes on marijuana sales have been projected to bring upwards from$200 million to as much as $300 million in revenue, “On the administration side, the law enforcement side – the state agencies that are going to have to regulate this – how much of that $200 million is going to be taken up in setting up that structure?”
Hoffman said he also anticipated consequences for street use.
Miller, who visits his sons and a granddaughter in Colorado, said secondhand smoke is a problem.
“You can’t go to a public space without secondhand smoke,” Miller said. “Think about that: you’re watching our granddaughter play soccer and you can’t get away from it. You cannot.”
Even though it is illegal to smoke anything in Major League Baseball stadiums, he claimed, “You cannot go to a baseball game in Colorado without leaving half high because of the secondhand smoke.”
Conversely, because of legal costs, Miller said he is in favor of decriminalization of marijuana.
In Sarasota County, it costs $140 to keep an inmate in jail, Hoffman said.
Of the 1,045 people in Sarasota County jail as of Friday morning, 12 had misdemeanor marijuana charges, Hoffman said, but all of them have an associated serious crime.
Sheriff’s deputies have written hundreds of adult civil citations, he added.
Amendment 2 – preserving the right to hunt and fish
Miller and Hoffman both wondered aloud why – given Florida’s history – that right needed to be spelled out in the state constitution. Then again, two dozen states have done just that, including Alabama and Georgia.
Turner said he thought the legislation was a preemptive strike against animal rights activists.
Amendment 4 – guaranteeing access to abortion
While the issue has had a high profile since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago and the Florida Supreme Court’s approval of a six-week abortion ban that took effect May 1, this amendment keys on the concept of fetal viability – generally believed to be 28 weeks but also as early as 24 weeks.
Miller noted that in Florida, a fetal death certificate isn’t issued prior to 20 weeks.
Taylor said that Floridians Protecting Freedom had raised $32 million for its ‘Yes On 4” campaign, including $3.5 million from Planned Parenthood.
Florida Voters against Extremism has raised $250,000 to oppose the measure, with the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops also working against its passage.
Rachel Frank, a member of the Venice City Council who has also volunteered in pregnancy medical centers as a client advocate for those facing an unplanned pregnancy, expressed concern that if the amendment passes, it would make Florida ore of the more liberal states with respect to abortion.
Duff Smiley said he would prefer mothers be steered to adoption instead of abortion, citing the success of his own adult daughters who were adopted.
Amendment 5 – Homestead annual inflation adjustment
This constitutional amendment would create an inflation adjustment increase to the first $50,000 of homestead property exemption, which does not apply to school taxes but would impact county and municipal taxes.
Frank noted that the Florida League of Cities has concerns because it impacts local governments but not the state Legislature.
“It erodes home rule but most notably the state’s telling a municipality how much revenue they can produce,” Frank said. “My issue is they’re not cutting into their own revenue stream, they’re telling municipalities how much money they can collect.”
Charles Bear – director of tax operations for the Charlotte County Tax Collector and a Republican candidate opposing Sarasota County Commissioner Mike Moran for the chance to oppose Democrat incumbent Barbara Ford-Coates in November – said the amendment would be a nightmare, partly because residents would wonder why the provision applied to their neighbor and not their own newly-minted exemption.
“If you do the math it’s not going to lower property taxes, because you still have the 3% increase on homestead parcels and school authority is not impacted by this CPI increase and the school authority is half your tax bill,” he added. “So it’s going to go up by 3% ever year – unless you get a change in millage – that’s the only way you’re going to lower property taxes.”
Jon Thaxton, senior vice president for community leadership at the Gulf Coast Community Foundation, stressed that it would shift the burden onto non-residential parcels, “which includes your affordable housing, your manufacturing and value-added industries and all of those things that we need for economic prosperity.
“It’s one of those things the Legislature likes to do, I guess, to make themselves feel good and give them something to talk about at campaign time,” he added.
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