Florida Catholic | Voters To Decide On “No Aid” Constitutional Provision

Voters to decide on “no aid” constitutional provision

JACQUELYN HORKAN | FLORIDA CATHOLIC STAFF

Posted: 03.28.08

TALLAHASSEE | The state’s Taxation and Budget Reform Commission voted March 26 to place on November’s ballot a proposal that would strike from Florida’s Constitution a 140-year-old provision prohibiting the state from spending state money in aid of any church or religious institution.

The so-called “no-aid” provision, written into the 1868 state constitution, was motivated in part by a nationwide wave of anti-Catholic bias.

“The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution assures government will be neutral toward religion and respect individuals’ choices in religious matters,” wrote Mike McCarron, executive director of the Florida Catholic Conference, in a letter to the members of the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission. The conference represents the state’s bishops on public policy matters. “Article 1, Section 3 in our State Constitution, more restrictive than the U.S. Constitution, does not reflect the pluralistic values of Floridians, and is instead reflective of the discriminatory and prejudicial fears of years gone by.”

Removing the provision will help protect disabled and low-income children who pay for their private school education with state dollars, according to supporters.

Over the last several years, the Florida Legislature created three scholarship programs that provided state money to qualified children who wanted to switch from their zoned public schools to other public, private or parochial schools.

The first of the programs, Opportunity Scholarships, was aimed at children in failing public schools. It was immediately challenged for allegedly violating the no-aid provision. In 2006, the Florida Supreme Court declared the Opportunity Scholarship program unconstitutional, but relied on another constitutional provision to render its decision.

Supporters of the other two scholarship programs worry that they are still vulnerable to challenge under the no-aid provision. In addition, some interpretations of the no-aid provision could threaten programs and services at Catholic hospitals and charitable organizations that rely, in part, on state funding.

McCarron notes that Florida’s Catholic hospitals provided more than $143 million worth of care for the poor last year. Some of that was paid for by Medicaid and a state program that reimburses hospitals for a portion of their charity care. He hopes voter approval of the elimination of the no-aid provision will protect the ability of those hospitals to continue receiving some payment for the care they provide to the neediest residents of the state.

The Taxation and Budget Reform Commission is a constitutionally mandated group that meets this year and every 20 years from now on to review how Florida’s government raises and spends money. The 25 voting members of the group can place constitutional amendments directly on the ballot with the approval of two-thirds of the commissioners. The no-aid elimination proposal passed on a 17 to 7 vote.

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Voters to decide on “no aid” constitutional provision

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