Amid fierce political battles about proposed constitutional amendments on abortion rights and recreational marijuana, two ballot measures about public financing of campaigns and property taxes are flying “under the radar.”
The measures on the Nov. 5 ballot would end a matching-funds program available to candidates for governor and state Cabinet seats (Amendment 6) and revise the homestead property-tax exemption (Amendment 5).
Susan MacManus, a retired political-science professor at the University of South Florida, said she thinks both measures will surpass the needed 60 percent of voter support to pass.
“Both of those, in the current economic environment, sound pretty good if you just look at the ballot summary,” MacManus said.
What appears on the ballot as Amendment 6 is titled “Repeal of Public Campaign Financing Requirement,” while what appears as Amendment 5 is titled “Annual Adjustments to the Value of Certain Homestead Exemption.”
University of Central Florida political-science professor Aubrey Jewett said the effort to repeal public campaign financing, which voters approved in 1998, seems less likely to pass. Jewett said he thinks the proposal might be “a little confusing” and has at least 40 percent of voter support.
As for the homestead-exemption measure, while also “pretty confusing,” Jewett said, “it seems like the majority of voters might like the idea of a small property tax cut.”
While money has poured into campaigns over proposals to enshrine abortion rights in the state Constitution (Amendment 4) and allow recreational use of marijuana (Amendment 3), there has been less attention, including polling, on other amendments. In all, six proposed constitutional amendments are on the ballot.
“I do think some of these proposed amendments will fly under the radar for people,” said Kevin Wagner, associate dean of research and creative achievement at Florida Atlantic University. “That makes the results a bit unpredictable as we do not know what they (voters) have seen or understand about some of the amendments. Some may simply be voting off the ballot summary.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis is leading efforts to defeat the proposed abortion and recreational-marijuana proposals. With the focus on those issues, Republican Party of Florida Chairman Evan Power said only one of the other amendments, a measure that would place hunting and fishing rights in the Constitution, “has a good chance of passing.”
“I'm not sure about the others, because I don't think anyone's put any money behind trying to pass them,” Power said.
After public campaign financing was approved by voters in 1998, a 2010 proposal by the Legislature to repeal the program fell short, getting 52.49 percent support from voters.
Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Nikki Fried supports keeping the matching-funds program, noting it helped her when she was elected agriculture commissioner in 2018 by 6,754 votes.
“It allowed me the opportunity to get some additional funds at the end, that put an extra couple points onto TV, which gave me some extra flexibility on some of my spend, that pushed me over the finish line,” Fried said. “It benefited Republicans when they were in the minority of our state, and so it's really been an opportunity to try to equalize some of these campaigns.”
Under the program, statewide candidates can receive matches for individual contributions of $250 or less. In exchange, candidates agree to abide by certain campaign expenditure limits. Matching funds are not available for contributions to political committees or outside of statewide races.
The fund has been tapped for more than $33 million over the four most-recent gubernatorial election cycles.
In those contests, Republicans running for governor, attorney general, agriculture commissioner and chief financial officer drew $18.65 million in matching funds. DeSantis accounted for $10.5 million of the funding for his 2018 and 2022 gubernatorial races.
Fifteen Democratic candidates received $14.618 million from the program.
Fried, the last Democrat to win statewide office, drew $158,507 in matching funds in her 2018 run for agriculture commissioner. Four years later, she drew $944,850 in state funding in an unsuccessful bid to become the Democratic gubernatorial candidate.
As for the homestead-exemption measure, the proposal would give homeowners slightly larger property-tax breaks.
Homeowners receive tax exemptions on the assessed values of their property up to $25,000 and on the values between $50,000 and $75,000. The proposal would require adjusting for inflation the exempt portion currently between $50,000 and $75,000.
Jewett said city and county officials worry that the change would affect revenue needed for roads, libraries, parks and first-responders. Also, he said some people and groups are concerned it could lead to shifts in taxes to renters and commercial properties.
“If this one doesn't pass, it will most likely be because it is confusing and people just don't understand it,” Jewett said.
