TAMPA, Fla. — Florida voters approved two amendments to the state constitution in Tuesday's election, surpassing the 60% majority needed to become law.
Dylan Hubbard is a fourth-generation boat captain at Hubbard’s Marina.
“Our family business started back in 1928 in Pass-A-Grille. We moved to John’s Pass in ’76 and we’ve been there ever since.”
His great-grandfather was the first.
“We started with row boats and cane poles, and nearly a hundred years and four family generations later, we are still hard at it.”
It’s that love for fishing and hunting that led Dylan to spend the last two years pushing for Amendment Two in the state of Florida.
Titled the Right to Fish and Hunt, Hubbard says it moves those rights from a state statute to the state constitution.
“There’s cases like out in Oregon where they actually tried to make hunting and fishing criminalized in certain situations and even farming. This was to me an important step in installing the lock on the front door of fishing and hunting," said Hubbard.
Some conservation groups opposed Amendment 2, saying it could open state waters to foreign commercial fishing and allow hunters to trespass on private property.
Related: How the Tampa area voted on Florida's Constitutional amendments
The other Florida amendment to pass is Amendment 5, which backers say is expected to give homeowners more of a tax break and allow inflation adjustments to the Homestead Exemption.
Hillsborogh County Property Appraiser Bob Henriquez says the amount of additional savings will depend on the amount of inflation each year.
“It will be a small savings each year but over the course of time it will add up. But a big thing is you wouldn’t lose the value of that second band of your Homestead Exemption over the course of time as inflation continues to year after year add up," said Henriquez.
More savings for homeowners does mean less tax revenue for local governments.
The portion of the exemption that goes to schools will not be affected.
