Ballot Update: Florida Supreme Court Ensures Property-Sales Tax Swap Won't Make the Ballot

The Florida Circuit Court ruling we reported on last month was upheld by the state's Supreme Court this week. As a result, the ill-conceived ballot proposal seeking to slash school property taxes will not be presented to Florida voters this November. The body that put the measure on the ballot -- The Taxation and Budget Reform Commission -- is not scheduled to meet again for another twenty years. That means the only option for enacting a property tax cut of the kind Florida has been stubbornly pursuing is to go through the Florida legislature. While it's not yet clear what the results of traveling down that path will be, it's fair to say that the cut, as proposed by the Commission, will not be adopted. Former state Senate President John McKay believes that "the effort, as it's currently conceived, is dead". The cries for property tax cuts aren't likely to face a similar demise anytime soon, however, and new developments from Florida seem inevitable in the coming weeks and months.