A Florida mayor is suing the sunshine state.

Eric Hersh is the mayor of a small city in south Florida. He says the lawsuit he filed is an effort to stop the statewide referendum in January on the legislature's Super Homestead proposal. He also said it is not being funded by the city of Weston, near Ft. Lauderdale, where he serves as mayor. He filed it on July 9 as a private taxpayer and citizen. If successful, he could at the very least get the referendum postponed until next November.

However, he is hoping to kill the referendum altogether and send the legislators back to their drawing boards. That would at least postpone any new state cuts in monies looming over the budgets of all local taxing authorities, including the school board and county departments, as well as many fire departments.

"The Super Homestead proposal is a disaster," Hersh said in a telephone interview. "I am the first one to support real property tax relief. But this isn't it and taxpayers don't realize it. This legislation was rushed and is flawed terribly. So many politicians are afraid of this issue they don't want to come out against tax reform. But this is not a good tax reform. People do not realize that they will be disadvantaged by the ending of the Save Our Homes homestead exemptions now being used. This proposed Super Homestead will get rid of Save Our Homes."

So far, he said, some fire departments in south Florida and a couple of police unions have joined the suit.

Hersh's lawsuit claims that the state is treading on unconstitutional ground in more than one area with the Super Homestead. First, he says that having the referendum vote in January goes against the state constitution because a vote such as this - which would amend the state constitution - is supposed to take place on a general election ballot, according to current constitutional provisions. The lawsuit also says the state is out of line by not allowing county governments to levy their own millage rate, since this new legislation would set the rate formula for taxing agencies.

"The state constitution allows agencies to levy up to 10 mills," Hersh said. "There is nothing in the constitution allowing the state to say counties cannot do that. They would have to change the constitution before they could pass this kind of law. They are trying to accomplish this by going at it all backwards."

Additionally, Hersh said the language in the referendum proposal to be placed on the ballot is misleading.

"The language needs to spell out exactly what people are voting for, and that the Save Our Homes exemption will end with this new proposal," Hersh said. "I don't think the legislators want the language to be clearer because it won't pass. They also do not want it on the November General election ballot, when more people are voting, because they are afraid it won't pass then. The proposal has to pass with 60 percent of those voting. I know just here in Weston at least 85 percent of our taxpayers could be disadvantaged by the Super Homestead. It just is not a good plan."

Hersh first filed his lawsuit with Florida's Supreme Court.

"We wanted to avoid the Circuit Court, but the Supreme Court ruled that it had to go back to Circuit Court before it comes to them," Hersh said. "So right now we have written briefs from both sides filed with Leon County's Second Judicial Circuit Court and are waiting for an actual live hearing date. We are anxious for a hearing."

Sterling Ivey, spokesman for the Florida Department of State, said at any point a judge can pull the issue off the referendum ballot, even by placing a restraining order not to hold the vote until after the case has run all appeals.

"I am sure no matter who wins in this case, there will be appeals by either or both sides," Ivey said.

Ivey said the referendum ballots are to be printed in late November statewide. "We will move ahead as planned until told to do something different by a judge. But even after the ballots are printed, a judge can stop the vote," Ivey said. "If a ruling comes down to stop the January vote after ballots are printed, then we would need to find a way to handle it on the local ballots. We may black out language, or place something over the proposal. We will have to wait and see what happens and be prepared at any time to change course."

Hersh said this is a totally unconstitutional proposal, and people should email or call their state representatives and the governor to try to encourage them to go back and find some real, honest tax relief.

He said anyone wanting to contact him for more information or to find out how they can enter support for the lawsuit without cost can email him at: ehersh@westonfl.org

Santa Rosa County Property Appraiser Greg Brown told Navarre Area Board of Realtors at a seminar three weeks ago that he would be placing a graph on his county website showing the differences between the current Save Our Homes exemption and the Super Homestead proposal on individual properties.

"People do not realize Super Homestead just may not be the best proposal for them. It looks great on the surface, but when you look at the second year and beyond, it might not be a very good plan for real tax relief for many people," Brown said.