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Do you trust your state legislators not to levy sales taxes against the purchase of metered water, school textbooks and lunches, dry cleaning or items bought by a local government?

Florida Sen. Mike Haridopolos, R-Melbourne, says you shouldn’t. He says that is exactly what would happen if a proposed constitutional amendment up for a November vote passes.

“If this thing passes, we’ll go to work,” Haridopolos said. “We’ll have to dramatically tax other programs.”

Haridopolos came to Fort Myers with his dukes up Monday afternoon. He intended to debate Amendment 5 at Edison College. The amendment would abolish the state’s local education property tax and force the Legislature to replace the lost income with spending cuts or new taxes, such as a 1-cent sales tax or the elimination of lobbyist-driven exemptions.

But no one showed up to debate him.

“The people who supported Amendment 5 have not showed up here and have not showed up before,” Haridopolos said Monday, referring to three similar, previous debates he has held. “Hopefully, they will find directions to Tampa tomorrow.”

The lack of someone to debate didn’t keep Haridopolos from voicing his concern with the proposal, which he said would cut education funding by $11 billion statewide.

Former Senate President John McKay, who has been championing the proposal for a decade said it’s intended to force legislators to eliminate some of the $32 billion in exemptions and exclusions identified by the Office of Economic and Demographic Research.

It is not intended, he said, to force legislators to tax school districts’ purchases of textbooks and lunches, for example, which the EDR estimated would produce about $55 million in revenue. That, he said, would be a legislative decision. The amendment specifically prohibits legislators from placing taxes on rent, food, health care, electricity or heating fuel, charitable organizations and other purchases.

“I’d like it all to come from exemptions,” McKay said. “You could certainly get a very, very significant number from that.”

McKay describes Haridopolos’ debates as scare tactics.

During his speech, Haridopolos did not mention the nearly $550 million in estimated sales tax exclusions real estate agents and brokers get for their offices or activities, he didn’t mention the $478 million in estimated exclusions for software publishers, Internet service providers, cable networks or television broadcasters, nor did he mention the exemptions or exclusions for cell phone towers, limousine services or escort services.

Another supporter of the proposal, Lee County Property Appraiser Ken Wilkinson, was also not at the debate, but was readily available by telephone to discuss the proposal. Wilkinson was a co-sponsor of the amendment during its time being approved by the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, a group that is constitutionally mandated to meet every 20 years. McKay was the chief sponsor.

Wilkinson’s opponent for his seat as appraiser, John Glaser, was at the debate. He said Wilkinson is disconnected with the affects this property tax cut amendment and the one passed in January have on education.

“Ken Wilkinson had hawked that throughout the county that it would hold schools harmless,” Glaser said, referring to Amendment 1, which he said led to $50 million in cuts for the Lee County School District. “Hold harmless on this one is $11 billion.”

But Wilkinson said this isn’t a property tax cut amendment, and noted that the state is already constitutionally required to fund education. Though it would save the average homeowner some $400 on their property tax bill, according to Haridopolos, Wilkinson said the proposal was more intended as a reform to the Florida tax system in general. Some have described the measure as a tax swap.

“There is a difference between tax relief and tax reform,” Wilkinson said. “Now we need tax reform where everybody benefits equally.”

Nonetheless, Lee County School District Business Officer Lee Legutko, one of the half-dozen community members at the debate, said the proposal is a losing one for the district, which has eliminated nearly 200 positions from its payroll in recent months.

“I’m still waiting from the early 1990s to have lottery dollars added to my budget,” Legutko told Haridopolos. “For this community that’s $380 million.”

Both McKay and Wilkinson said they weren’t invited to the debate. Wilkinson said he had heard about it, but wasn’t aware Monday afternoon. Either way, he said he would not have walked into a room stacked against him. There were more reporters than anyone else present.

McKay, a Bradenton real estate broker, said he doesn’t have time to drive around the state debating proposals still months away from a vote. He wondered why Haridopolos hadn’t contacted the chairman of the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, Rep. Allen Bense, R-Panama City. He also questioned the time of the events.

“If you want Mr. and Ms. Smith to come to these things,” McKay said of the debates, “you don’t hold them at 2 o’clock in the afternoon.”