Gov. Charlie Crist is eager to use his bully pulpit to promote January’s property tax measure. His opponents have their own weapon: a pipeline to Florida's public school teachers.

The Florida Education Association is mailing its 137,000 members a splashy color flier that ridicules the size of the tax cut while sounding alarms about the impact on school budgets. (click here
and here
for rest of flier)

“Amendment #1 - A bad deal for schools, students and YOU,” the flier reads, next to a photograph of a teacher banging his head on a chalkboard. The mailer includes postcards people can send to request absentee ballots to vote “from the comfort of your own home.”

The flier, which was coupled with a recorded message to teachers, represents the first push in an anticipated
effort to defeat the plan, which will appear on the Jan. 29 ballot.

Next week, the teachers union will join forces with the Florida
AFL-CIO, firefighters and others to announce further steps, which could
include a Web site, radio ads and targeted mail.

For his part, Crist is gearing up for a high-profile campaign that will
include stops around the state — on Friday, he goes to Orlando — and
television ads, provided proponents can raise requisite millions.

The plan calls for increasing the $25,000 homestead exemption to about $40,000, allowing people to transfer their accrued Save Our Homes benefit when they move to a new home and providing a 10 percent annual assessment cap for businesses and second homes.

It would cut about $9.2-billion in taxes over five years, according to the latest estimate. (The previous total was $12.4-billion, but a worsening housing market is expected to translate into fewer people moving. That included about $2.8-billion in cuts to school budgets; the revised number is $1.5-billion.)

Either way the aggregate cut is immense. But the teachers union notes
that an average person who does not intend to move would save $240 from
the higher homestead exemption.

“An average middle class Florida homeowner will get less than $20 a
month while facing drastic cuts in our local fire services, law
enforcement and our schools,” the flier states.

It seeks to catch teachers, bus drivers, aides and secretaries where it
hurts most -- asserting that under the cuts “raises will be wiped
out..school services eliminated...jobs will be cut.”

The FEA had previously announced its opposition to the property tax
plan but had held off on doing anything in deference to Crist.

The governor had met with FEA President Andy Ford and said he would
take steps to ensure the money would be replaced. Crist, however, can
only urge the Legislature to act; it is up to lawmakers to form the
budget.

Republican leaders have pledged to hold schools “harmless” but the
worsening economy has already forced them to cut $1.1-billion from the
state budget, and they face an additional $1.4-billion shortfall.

“The governor believes this is a good idea and will spur the economy
and we’ll find money somewhere,” FEA spokesman Mark Pudlow said in an
interview Wednesday. “It’s real hard for us to believe.”