By now most of you know that on August 13, a circuit court judge stopped (for now) Amendment 5 from being put on the November ballot. This was due to inconsistency in the wording. The Florida Supreme Court will be hearing an appeal of this ruling.

Even if Amendment 5 is stopped, our legislators will continue to look for tax dollars to alleviate the problems with the current budget. The sales and/or service tax issue remains, and we must continue to visit our legislators to express our concerns with a potential tax on our insurance commissions. Remember, we are the only professionals who cannot pass the sales or service tax on to consumers. We are proceeding as if Amendment 5 will be on the ballot.

If you do not know who your legislators are, you can get their names, addresses, etc., by logging on to www.MyFlorida.com. Scroll down to “Find Your Legislator” on the right side of the page.

If you visit your legislator and discuss our concerns with Amendment 5, please let Bob Lotane know as he is keeping track of this info, so we know who needs to be visited and where we stand. E mail him at lotane@faifa.org.

Remember, do not try to change your legislator's mind about how to vote on Amendment 5, at this point they are not going to change. Just let him/her know that since we cannot pass this tax along, due to the insurance code, it is essentially an income tax, which is prohibited by Florida's Constitution. Also, there already is a premium tax on virtually every insurance policy so this would effectively be double taxation.