Among the measures it will consider: letting voters raise sales taxes to benefit community colleges, restoring public-school vouchers, and tamping down government spending with a rigid tax cap.
The broad range of ideas comes before the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission at its last scheduled meeting to decide which proposals make the ballot cut. But the variety may be more of a reflection of the ideological agendas of individual members than of the 13 months the panel spent listening to demographers, economists and average Floridians as it traveled the state.
Whatever the panel places before voters in November will take 17 votes of the 25-member commission on Friday, and will need to make it through a final vote at the end of April.
The panel has already voted to put four property-tax-related proposals on the November ballot, including a controversial one to replace the portion of property taxes that pay for schools with increases in sales taxes and other revenue. It has also green-lighted a vote to change the state Constitution to allow the state to pay religious organizations that perform state services.
Friday's agenda includes a provision that could restore state vouchers for students in low-performing schools and validate two other voucher programs by removing the ban on state money for private schools.
UNION COMPLAINT
It's an issue that has raised the hackles of the Florida Education Association. The teachers' union this week complained in a letter to Commission Chairman Allan Bense that the voucher issue exceeds the commission's constitutional authority and that seven of the 25 members have a conflict of interest.
FEA President Andy Ford said the members have a direct relationship with pro-voucher groups and should have disclosed their relationship before voting last week for the amendment to allow state money to go to religious schools and churches. He accused them of ``disregarding the ethical standards established by the commission's rules and Florida's laws.''
The voucher amendments were originally pushed by commission members Greg Turbeville, a former staffer of Gov. Jeb Bush, and Patricia Levesque, also a former Bush staffer who now heads his pro-voucher education foundation.
Turbeville and Lesvesque were appointed by House Speaker Marco Rubio, who along with Bush has lobbied commission members to vote for the voucher amendment. Both were also involved in persuading the panel to approve the amendment on the property-tax repeal.
Bense said he will consider the FEA letter but defends the proposals as the culmination of months of debate and the work of the panel's subcommittees. The commission is composed of seven members appointed by Rubio, seven by Senate President Ken Pruitt and 11 by Gov. Charlie Crist.
''I'm frankly not surprised by the diversity of ideas from members,'' Bense said. ``Some of the members are passionate about their ideas. A lot of these things don't directly relate to taxes but indirectly they all do.''
One proposal that will have a direct impact on taxes is a plan to impose strict new limits on spending by writing into the Constitution a formula that caps the amount of taxes and fees cities, counties and the state can collect.
The proposal -- patterned after the now-suspended Colorado Taxpayer Bill of Rights, or TABOR -- requires government to return to taxpayers any money collected above the cap. The formula is based on population growth and inflation, plus one percentage point. Exceeding the cap would require a two-thirds vote of the governing board, and any new tax or fee would require a similar vote of the public.
CONTROVERSIAL IDEA
The measure is seen by opponents as an attempt by conservative, anti-government activists to use the tax panel to push a concept that's been rejected in several other states.
''While TABOR may be a good sound bite, its reality would be detrimental,'' said Frank Bruno, chairman of the Volusia County Commission. ``It places government on auto-pilot and makes our elected officials powerless.''
The commission has heard those complaints and some members appear to have cold feet. The sponsor, Duval County Tax Collector Mike Hogan, has re-drafted it several times. On Tuesday, he proposed an amendment to impose the cap but have the Legislature work out the details.
On Thursday, Hogan's latest draft spelled out which government revenue sources would be covered by the cap and which government services excluded from its effects. Helping to keep the proposal alive: former Gov. Bush and Rubio, who have called several members of the commission urging that they support various versions of the amendment.
As commission members struggle to get the 17 votes needed for their ideas, amendments proposals have been piling up with last-minute changes and even major rewrites. That prompted member Martha Barnett, a Tallahassee lawyer who served on the first Taxation and Budget Reform Commission 20 years ago, to complain in an e-mail to commission staff on Wednesday.
DIFFICULT TASK
The late rewrites ''makes it difficult if not impossible'' to evaluate their impact, she said. While the practice is common for the Legislature, the commission doesn't have the benefit of meeting every year to fix its mistakes, Barnett wrote, ``We do not have that luxury.''
Bense believe he has no option but to allow members to make changes until the last vote.
''I don't think it's my place to restrict members from expressing their concerns [about a proposal] by amending it,'' he said.
