Legal Research

Article I, Section 3 of the Florida Constitution provides, in a section significantly titled Religious freedom:  "No revenue of the state or any political subdivision or agency thereof shall ever be taken from the public treasury directly or indirectly in aid of any church, sect, or religious denomination or in aid of any sectarian institution."  Hernando County?s Tourist Development Council, however, is set to spend county funds to publicize the Hernando Freedom Fest, an event sponsored by a Christian clergy group at which the gospel of Jesus Christ will be proclaimed.  As Dan DeWitt points out in the St. Petersburg Times, the separation of Church and State declared in both the United States and Florida Constitutions has worked well for religious groups in the United States, because public funds are, in theory at least, not spent promoting any one religion over the host of others which exist in this country.  It seems Hernando County is enforcing tithing (albeit at less than the going rate) on its citizens.