On a 17-7 vote, the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission placed on the November ballot an amendment to replace the state Constitution's wide-ranging ''no-aid'' to religion provision with the following wording: ``Individuals or entities may not be barred from participating in public programs because of religion.''
The issue could attract to the polls both conservative religious voters and civil libertarians during the presidential election year, adding a controversy to a ballot increasingly crowded by the commission's own tax proposals. Both sides honed the arguments at the commission meeting:
Opponents suggested the change would allow for state-sponsored religious promotion at private institutions.
Supporters said scores of government programs worth hundreds of millions of dollars and run by religious groups are endangered because of a 2004 appeals court ruling that overturned one of the state's school-voucher programs.
''Because millions of dollars of public programs are at risk, we have to take action,'' said commission member Patricia Levesque, sponsor of the amendment. She cited a recent case filed in Leon County court in which the Council for Secular Humanism is suing the Department of Corrections for using a faith-based drug-treatment provider.
''This is proof there will continue to be attacks on these programs,'' she said.
A state appeals court heard the same arguments about the no-aid provision in 2004 when it struck down former Gov. Jeb Bush's voucher program, which gave kids at poorly rated schools the chance to attend private schools, most of them religious.
Levesque works for a Bush education foundation and was the governor's education policy advisor.
Levesque told the commission that removing the no-aid language from the state Constitution will not restore the voucher program the court struck down, but will protect other programs from meeting a similar fate.
But voucher opponents note that the appeals court ruled that public money was being used to preach religion to kids in class, very different from using public money to pay faith-based vendors to perform a secular purpose, such as hospital care and drug treatment.
Commission member Les Miller, a Baptist deacon and former state senator, disagreed with Levesque and noted that since the court ruling, hospitals with religious affiliations continue getting Medicaid money, religious universities receive state scholarship money and religious vendors provide much of Florida's universal Pre-K care.
None is endangered, Miller said. ''That scare tactic should not carry weight,'' he said.
Commission member Carlos Lacasa said he supports stripping the no-aid clause from the Constitution, but that adding ''10 or 15 extra words'' go ``way, way beyond the intent of this legislation and is too risky for me to support.''
To Miami-Dade School Board member Evelyn Greer, a Democrat, the panel's vote was ``violating the public trust.''
''This is a cynical effort to drive fundamentalists to the polls in November,'' she said.
Other School Board members were concerned that the move would open the door for more vouchers. That seems unlikely, though, because the state Supreme Court killed the original vouchers program under a different principle in the state Constitution that calls for ''uniform'' and ``free public schools.''
The no-aid language was added to the state Constitution in 1868 as anti-Catholic bias swept the nation. About 37 states have the provisions, but Florida's is among the strictest in the nation, and would be the first to delete language banning state aid to religious groups.
The 2004 court case did not address two other types of vouchers that are still in use: those for disabled kids and those for poor children whose education in private schools is funded by companies that then get a tax credit from the state.
Commission member John McKay, a Bradenton businessman and former Senate president for whom the voucher program for disabled students is named, voted against the amendment. He said it will cloud the election season and the work of the commission -- especially the tax-swap proposal he sponsored and the commission last week put on the November ballot.
''If we put this on the ballot, everything else we put on the ballot is going to go down in flames,'' McKay said.
He added that after four years neither the voucher program named after him nor any other faith-based providers that offer state services have been threatened.
''I think we're looking for monsters under the bed that might not be there,'' he said.
A Baptist minister and a rabbi also argued against the measure, saying they value the church-state protections and don't want them tampered with.
The Florida Catholic Conference disagreed, saying it is time to eliminate a holdover ``of an unenlightened past.''
Commission member Roberto Martinez, a Miami lawyer and former U.S. attorney, gave the most detailed defense of the measure. He noted the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment would act as a ''backstop'' to any state sponsoring of religion.
The commission will take one more vote on the language of the amendment and consider merging it with other proposals to be placed before voters, including a plan members may take up next week to give constitutional authority to school vouchers.
Commission Chairman Allan Bense predicted that if the amendment eliminating the no-aid clause passes, it will face a legal challenge.
''In the end,'' he said, ``it will take a court to decide.''
Miami Herald staff writers Nirvi Shah, Kathleen McGrory and Hannah Sampson contributed to this report.
