Not a lot of folks are putting faith in the Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday that found the Jan. 29 property tax amendment had made a largely positive, if uninformed, imprint on voters.
The poll found 57 percent supported it, even though 67 percent confessed they needed more information to make an informed judgement.
Democrats were quick to pass off a poll of their own conducted last month in Jacksonville's House District 16 that found 43 percent would vote yes, 44 percent no, with 13 percent undecided.
The big difference between the two polls (other than the fact that the Q. poll was statewide, and the Democrats' was in an upper-class Republican House district) was the wording of the question.
Quinnipiac didn't explain what the amendment would do, other than mentioning it would give homeowners a "super" homestead exemption, which one Democratic strategist called "biased."
The Democratic poll went into mind-numbing detail, describing how the amendment would "replace the current $25,000 Homestead exemption with a super-exemption of 75% of the first $200,000 of the home's value and 15% of the home's value from $200,000 to $500,000 with a minimum exemption of $50,000 or $100,000 for low-income seniors," (breath), and "allow homeowners to preserve their Save our Homes provisions when those savings are greater than the savings under the new exemptions And require the legislature to limit the authority of counties, municipalities, and special districts to raise ad valorem taxes, and authorize an exemption of no less than $25,000 from tangible personal property."
So what's so confusing?
Voters tend to oppose ballot questions they aren't totally clear about, and poll questions that take too long to spit out over the phone are likely to get the same reaction.
Still, you have to wonder whether the expected media blitz around the amendment will make this any easier for the public to digest, or just add to the noise.
For everyone's betterment, read the whole amendment here.