The TaxWatch Research Blog

The 2024 Florida TaxWatch Voter Guide to Florida’s Constitutional Amendments analyzes six proposed amendments on the November 5, 2024, ballot. It provides a summary, fiscal impact, and recommendation for each amendment. These amendments cover topics such as partisan school board elections, a constitutional right to hunt and fish, legalizing recreational marijuana, abortion rights, inflation adjustments to homestead exemptions, and the repeal of public campaign financing. Florida TaxWatch offers recommendations based on thorough analysis, urging voters to use the guide to make informed decisions.

On November 8, 2022, Floridians will vote on three legislatively referred proposed amendments to the Florida Constitution. At least 60 percent of the voters must vote in the affirmative for a proposed amendment to pass. This Florida TaxWatch Voter Guide is designed to provide Florida voters with information about each of the proposed amendments to help them cast well-informed votes.

On November 3, 2020, Floridians went to the polls (or voted by mail) to elect the next President of the United States, voted on numerous state and local races, and decided the fate of six proposed amendments to the Florida Constitution. As if that were not enough, voters across the state had to consider more than 200 local referenda, including some significant tax increases This wrap-up looks at how these measures fared. 

The following is a compilation of the tax and fee increases, bond issues, proposed exemptions, and selected other significant fiscal referenda that go before Florida voters on November 3.

Florida TaxWatch tiene el honor de brindar este servicio a los contribuyentes de Florida para ayudar a educar a los votantes sobre las enmiendas que se les presentan en la boleta de este año. La Guía del Votante de 2020 detalla las seis enmiendas presentes en la boleta electoral del 3 de noviembre de 2020, proporciona recomendaciones de TaxWatch sobre la forma de votar junto con el razonamiento de cada recomendación. 

Florida TaxWatch is honored to provide this service to the taxpayers of Florida in order to help educate voters on the issues before them on this year’s ballot. The 2020 Voter Guide details the six amendments on the November 3, 2020 ballot, provides a TaxWatch recommendation of which way to vote, and the reasoning for each recommendation. 

In this report, Florida TaxWatch examines the potential impacts of raising Florida’s minimum hourly wage to $15 on Florida businesses and taxpayers. Like many amendments, the increased minimum wage comes with both positive and negative impacts. While it would help lift many workers out of poverty and increase wages even for those not making minimum wage, it would also increase the cost of doing business in the state, and the cost of being a consumer in the state.

A proposed constitutional amendment initiative that would destructure Florida’s energy market may appear on the November 2020 general election ballot that would (if approved) radically change Florida’s energy market.  This independent analysis estimates the financial impacts of deregulation on tax revenues and to help Florida taxpayers better understand the effects of the proposed deregulation.

On November 6, 2018, Floridians voted on 12 proposed amendments to the Florida Constitution. Eleven of the 12 passed with at least a 60 percent majority, all but Amendment 1, which would have provided an additional $25,000 homestead property tax exemption. But the amendments were not the only thing that voters had to agree on. In addition to the amendments, voters across Florida chose to put in place a number of local tax measures and new bond issues. 

On November 6, 2018, Floridians will vote on 12 proposed amendments to the Florida Constitution. This Florida TaxWatch Voter Guide is designed to provide voters with information about each of the amendments to help them cast well-informed votes.

Floridians will be voting on as many as 13 state constitutional amendments on November 6, 2018. The first on the list, Amendment 1 (A1), would create a new $25,000 homestead exemption from property taxes.

In November 2018, Florida voters have a chance avoid a major property tax increase on owners of commercial or rental property, vacation or second homes, unimproved real estate, or any other non- homestead property. This tax increase will happen if the current 10 percent cap on non-homestead property assessments—scheduled to be repealed—is not reauthorized by the voters.

Having led in the enactment of Florida’s current consitutional state revenue limitation, Florida TaxWatch has been recommending a simpler and higher standard to pass tax increases since 1995.

This edition of the 2016 Voter Guide details the four amendments on the November 8 ballot. We have provided a notes sheet on page 30 of this Guide, where you can jot down anything you want to remember about the amendments, and take it with you to the polls.

On August 30 and November 8, 2016, Floridians will vote on a total of five proposed amendments to the Florida Constitution. This Florida TaxWatch Voter Guide is designed to provide voters with information about each of the amendments to help them cast well-informed votes.

The Taxwatch Voter Guide for 2014 explains the three amendments facing voters this November.

Consistent with the research and educational mission of Florida TaxWatch, the 2012 Voter Guide is the third consecutive Guide released during a statewide election cycle. TaxWatch released similar Guides in 2010 and 2008, and has written extensively on individual Constitutional Amendments going back nearly 30 years.

Amendment 4 would require that voters approve changes to their local comprehensive land use plans. Some consider this a dangerous case of 'hyper-democracy.'

"This report, written independently of Florida TaxWatch, details the salient points of each of these amendments before making recommendations. "

"This report analyzes three of the six proposed amendments to the Florida Constitution. Those amendments focus on ad valorem tax credit for deployed military personnel, comprehensive land use plans, and revision of class size requirements for public schools. "