I truly can't take it anymore.  Can our legislatures figure out a reasonable and meaningful resolution to our property taxes?  I don't think they can.

The proposed "Super Exemption" that was to be on the ballot in January wasn't perfect but it was progress.  As you are probably aware a judge filed to have the amendment removed from the ballot because it was unconstitutional and confusing for the average voter. 

Here is an outline of the super exemption and how the property taxes would be calculated: increase the homestead exemption from $25,000 to 75 percent of the just value of the property up to $200,000 and 15 percent of the just value of the property above $200,000 up to $500,000.  This seems to make sense.  It is rather straight forward and clear on how our property taxes would be calculated.  The only problem is that it doesn't do anything for non-homesteaded properties and businesses.

There were other changes such as a minimum homestead exemption amounts of $50,000 for everyone except low-income seniors and $100,000 for low-income seniors. 

Where is the problem here?  The voters would get to choose to keep the existing save our homes cap at 3% a year or choose the super exemption.

So now our legislation has been in special session trying to come up with a new plan.  The word on the street is that they are proposing a 3% cap on all properties which would provide a cap for non-homesteaded properties and over time it would eliminate the huge inequities that we currently have.  They also want to allow some form of portability that would allow homesteaded owners to take their tax savings with them when they purchase a new home. 

I was searching on our House of Representatives Website to do a little more research.  Here is how they plan on offering portability:

And this is supposed to be understood by the average voter????  Give me a break.

I realize that they can't just cut our property taxes in half and not replace the revenues somehow.  I do think that our local governments should have planned for a rainy day (now) and not assumed that real estate values, which drive property taxes, would continue to grow indefinitely.  I realize that we can't cut city government budgets by 50 - 60%.  Why can't we replace some of the revenue with an increase in sales tax?

People say that increasing sales taxes hurts the poor.  If you do the math, raising our sales tax by 2 cents will be almost unnoticeable.  If the average income in Florida is around $25,000 a year; is it safe to say that those people aren't spending more than $10,000 on "discretionary" spending assuming that people usually spend almost have of their income on housing and they have to buy clothes and eat.  Correct me if I'm wrong here....$10,000 x $0.02 = $200.  A 2 cent increase in sales tax will affect the "average" Floridian by $17 a month, or $4.25 a week, or $0.61 a day. 

A large portion of the sales taxes are paid by people from out of the area.  Our states economy is largely driven by tourism.  It would be spread out and the impact would be insignificant.  There was worry that an increase in our sales tax would hurt tourism. 

Chicago is proposing an increase in their sales tax from 9% to 11%.  I don't think that is going to keep people from going to Chicago. 

I am done now that I gave you my 2 cents worth. Charlie Christ promised to "drop our property taxes like a rock".  I am still waiting.......

It's a good life,

Ian Anderson - Ormond Beach Real Estate

http://LivinByTheBeach.com