Special Session for Tax Reform Begins Today

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Jackie Colson-Miller
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Toni Everett Company
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The Florida Legislature begins it’s special session today in Tallahassee. What looked like it was going to be “major”, “sweeping” cuts to the property tax bills for every homeowner in Florida, seemed to have gotten dropped on the floor in committee meetings last week.

The original plan was to have a 3 or 4-tiered homestead deduction percentage according to property values, beginning with an 80% deduction at the lower end and a 30% deduction at the top of the value scale. That plan would have been beneficial to everyone. In a letter dated June 1, the Joint Committee for Property Tax Reform agreed to a 3 or 4 tiered change.

Now, the talk is that the first $200,000 of value will get a 75% of value exemption and from $200,000 to $500,000 will get a mere 15% exemption. And that’s it. Anyone who is better of with “Save our Homes” cap, which caused this mess in the first place, will be allowed to keep that tax bill. This plan is only beneficial to new buyers, or recent buyers, in the lower price ranges. This still leaves most homeowners who purchased a home more than 5 years ago “stuck” in their homes over their current “capped” assessed values.

Another part of the plan is for each county to have to roll back their taxes to a certain level, but that does not affect the homestead exemption. I will never be convinced that the local governments could not operate on the budgets of 4 or 5 years ago. They have simply spent too much and don’t want to be held accountable.

This will benefit the homes for sale in the under 500k range. Under this plan, the new taxes for that price range will be lower than under the “Save our Homes” plan.

How could a great plan get tossed aside in a matter of days? That is the question. Lobbyists? Partisan Politics?

Thanks to Marco Rubio and his push for drastic change in taxes, for the property owners in Florida…it’s a pity it seems mostly for naught. Let’s see what happens as the week rolls on….but, I am not holding my breath.

And, THEN, we’ll talk about what happens on January 29, 2008, if the constitutional amendment isn’t passed by the voters. I’d like to see the original plan sent to the Florida voters. Additional revenues can be raised in other taxes: cigarettes, alcohol, gambling…non-essential items… That’s my thought for the day.

As always….I LOVE your comments. This issue just keeps getting HOTTER…it’s definitely SIZZLING….

Scroll down and leave me your ideas in the comment section below….

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 12th, 2007 at 6:38 am and is filed under Florida Real Estate, Property Taxes in Florida, Real Estate News, Tampa Real Estate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.