The Florida Senate narrowly approved the joint resolution by a bipartisan 25-12 vote, one more than needed for the measure to pass. Some argued that the measure would create further inequities in the state’s tax structure that creates a disparity between property owners depending on how long they’ve owned or lived in the structures and that it would not help create jobs.
“I have not had one person call me up and say ‘Please reduce my property tax,’” said Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, one of the three Republicans who voted against the amendment. “In your heart, you all know it’s a cop-out to say let’s let the voters decide.”
But supporters said the proposal would infuse life into the anemic real estate market.
“We have literally tens of thousands of unoccupied homes in the state,’’ said the bill’s sponsor Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey. “We’ve got to create some incentives.” (more…)
Florida voters would get a chance to reduce property taxes on commercial buildings, second-homes and other investment purchases under legislation Monday clearing the House 105-11.
The measure, targeted for next year’s presidential primary ballot, now slated for Jan. 31, would reduce the annual growth in assesed value from 10 percent to five percent. The legislation also allows for a first-time homebuyer’s tax break amounting to 50 percent of the median value of homesteaded property in a county.
“This is the jobs vehicle that you’ve heard discussed,” said Rep. Chris Dorworth, R-Lake Mary, sponsor of the measure (CS/HJR 381), which still needs Senate approval. “When (businesses) can shift tax payments to new capital, you’re going to get jobs.”
Before the House vote, Dorworth mentioned several members of the Florida Realtors as instrumental to the legislation. Florida Realtors steered millions of dollars to the state Republican Party for last fall’s elections, and have pushed the measure as a means to help kick-start an economy awash with a backlog of homes in a state that is among the nation’s leaders in foreclosures.
Opponents said the proposed constitutional amendment — if approved by 60 percent of voters — would only build on property-tax inequities in the state’s Save Our Homes standard, approved by voters almost 20 years ago.
“There are better ways to get at attacking the tax inequities in Florida,” said Rep. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth.
A day after Senate President Mike Haridopolos toughened his stance against the governor’s must-have corporate income tax cut, Republican Rick Scott said Monday that he still expected lawmakers to take steps to reduce the $1.8 billion levy.
A roughly 25 percent reduction in water management district property-tax collections was agreed-on Sunday by House and Senate budget negotiators. The cut was part of Scott’s wide-ranging $2 billion plan for slashing taxes. But is the water management district cut enough for Scott to declare victory?
Probably not, the governor said.
“I’m glad that they are doing the right thing in regards with water management districts,” Scott said. “And I remain confident that we’re going to start the process of eliminating the business tax. It’s clearly the way to get our state back to work.”
Would he veto a budget that didn’t make room for the tax cut, as the governor has hinted in radio addresses and interviews?
“I focused on three things with this budget,” Scott said. “Step one, we need to reduce the size of this budget.
“Everything I’m doing, as you know, as governor, is to get our state back to work….We still have a million people without a job. The budget that I expect to sign will reduce the size of government, the cost of government, and the business tax.”
Haridopolos on Sunday said he didn’t think the Senate would go along with cutting the corporate tax, although he conceded that he and Scott’s office had been working on some reduction plans.
Scott’s proposal would have reduced the tax by $333 million next year– but Haridopolos said the Senate is more inclined to look at other reductions, leaving the 5.5 percent corporate income tax at its current level.
There’s been tough talk. Ignored priorities. Charges of flip-flopping. Even a lawsuit.
But the political marriage of Republican Gov. Rick Scott and the GOP-dominated Legislature may yet end its rocky honeymoon stage with the first-year executive claiming some big victories and the party powerfully positioned for next year’s elections.
And, in the nation’s biggest toss-up state, the sharply right policies advanced by Scott and Republican super majorities in the House and Senate also will give Democrats potent weapons for next year’s campaigns.
“It’s been mean-spirited and an overreach by the Republicans,” said Rich Templin, a spokesman for the Florida AFL-CIO, a labor union allied with Democrats. “I think we’re going to be able to say to voters, ‘Look what they did. Who do you think cares about working families of Florida?’ “
But House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, said he’s not worried.
“Two-thirds of the legislative branch is Republican so clearly, the people have sent a more Republican group of representatives to their government,” Cannon said. “So I think it’s only natural that you would see initiatives or proposals that will reflect that.”
The Republican-ruled House and Senate are proposing $1 billion in public school cuts, reductions in health and social service programs, and plenty more tight-fisted spending decisions as they struggle to close an almost $3.8 billion budget gap.
But GOP leaders are poised to spend $400,000 to get a likely popular tax break before voters early on next year’s election calendar.
Rep. Chris Dorworth, R-Lake Mary, already tapped as a future House speaker, got his bill advancing a first-time home buyers’ tax break through the House Economic Affairs Committee on Tuesday, in a party-line vote.
Dorworth said the legislation (CS/HB 1053) advancing the tax break to next January’s presidential primary will allow buyers to take advantage of the reduction sooner. If approved by 60 percent of voters, the tax break would take effect in January, as opposed to January 2013, if it was left to be approved by voters in November.
Dorworth’s proposal was approved 10-5, with Democrats opposed. Rep. Jim Waldman, D-Coconut Creek, said putting the tax proposal on the early primary ballot wasn’t worth the extra cost — $400,000 for statewide advertising of the proposed constitutional amendment, according to analysts.
Among Democrats, there also was an undercurrent that the GOP was looking to get the tax-cutting approved early in an election year, to give them another voter-friendly issue to campaign on.
Dorworth refused to take the bait. “We think it belongs in a January or February vote,” he said.
Democrats, though, may still get the final say on this one. Dorworth needs approval of three-fourths of the House and Senate to get the tax measure on the presidential primary ballot. While vastly outnumbered, Democrats still have enough votes to keep the ruling party from reaching that high bar.
GOP leaders haven’t settled yet on whether to delay the presidential primary by a month to comply with Republican National Committee rules that prohibit other states from jumping ahead of early primaries planned for New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina and Nevada.
The proposed ballot measure is a rewrite of a constitutional proposal barred by the Florida Supreme Court from going before voters last year because of misleading ballot language.
The amendment proposes a tax break for first-time home buyers and lowers the annual cap on assessment increases for businesses, rental properties and vacation homes. The Florida Association of Realtors, a heavy contributor to the state GOP last year, has said the measure would revive home sales and attract new investors to the state.
House members signalled Tuesday they fear being on the losing end of legal challenges filed by cities to 2009 legislation which relaxed growth management standards.
The legislation, SB 360, eased back on state laws requiring developers to help underwrite the cost of new schools, roads and other infrastructure needs tied to new projects in urban areas. Backers said the shift would help blunt urban sprawl, by giving developers more of an incentive to build within crowded areas.
But cities sued — saying the changes would shift costs away from developers to taxpayers. And a Leon County Circuit judge agreed in 2010, declaring the measure unconstitutional, sending an appeal to Tallahassee’s First District Court of Appeal.
Lawmakers, though, don’t seem to feel good about their chances.
Instead, the Legislature’s planned fix will take shape Wednesday with the House expected to try to reenact the measure off the books since the judge’s ruling.
Powered by super-majorities in the House and Senate, ruling Republicans can revive the costly shift to local governments with two-thirds support. A 1990 constitutional amendment allows lawmakers to pass on such unfunded mandates –but only when two-thirds of each chamber agrees.
“It simply reenacts state law and gives developers and local governments some certainty about the law we passed in 2009,” said Rep. Ritch Workman, R-Melbourne, sponsor of this year’s proposal (HB 7001).
The Leon court, in its 2010 ruling, said the developer-friendly law would require almost 250 Florida cities to submit comprehensive plan amendments to comply with the law at a cost of $15,000 each, or roughly $3.7 million statewide.
Gov. Rick Scott’s budget plan includes a tax cut for businesses that would decrease corporate income taxes from 5.5 percent to 3 percent and roll back property taxes by $1 billion, the governor said in Tampa this afternoon.
Scott did not reveal details of how he plans to come up with the savings while also closing a $3.62 billion budget deficit but is scheduled to release his entire budget on Monday in Eustis.
Scott’s also blaming Florida’s budget woes in part on the federal health care law recently struck down by a Pensacola federal judge as unconstitutional.
Gov. Rick “Let’s Get to Work” Scott won’t roll out his first budget on time.
Scott asked lawmakers for a one-day delay to hand over his budget proposal, due Friday, Feb. 4. House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, and Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, signed off on Scott’s request, meaning the governor has the weekend to finish before presenting it to the legislature on Monday, Feb. 7.
Lawmakers are anxiously awaiting Scott’s budget plan as they wrestle with an anticipated $3.62 billion budget hole, not including any money they might sock away for emergencies.
GOP leaders in the House and Senate have been skeptical of Scott’s promise that he can cut spending enough to close the spending gap and even move forward with his plans to reduce property taxes and lower corporate income taxes.
After casting a preliminary vote earlier this month to boost the countywide property tax rate from $3.78 per $1,000 of appraised value to $4.34, Palm Beach County commissioners made it official Monday night.
The vote for the 14.9 percent rate increase was 5-2, with Commissioners Steven Abrams and Shelley Vana opposed.
Abrams is on the ballot next year. So is Commissioner Priscilla Taylor, who supported the $4.34 rate. Commissioner Jess Santamaria, another supporter of the rate hike, is up for reelection next year but hasn’t announced whether he’ll run.
Question: Will the tax vote matter in any of the 2010 races?
“A 15 percent increase in the tax rate is unconscionable in the kind of economy we’re in right now,” said state Rep. Mary Brandenburg, D-West Palm Beach, who’s running next year for the District 2 commission seat of term-limited Jeff Koons.
County Democratic Chairman Siegel says $4.34 rate is OK
As Palm Beach County commissioners prepare for a public hearing tonight on the 2009-10 county budget, the county Democratic Party is endorsing County Administrator Bob Weisman’s proposal to to increase the countywide property tax rate from about $3.7811 per $1,000 of appraised value to $4.344.
Because overall property values have declined, the 14.9 percent rate hike would generate roughly the same amount of revenue in 2009-10 as the county is getting this year and therefore wouldn’t meet the state’s legal definition of a tax increase. But homesteaded property owners, whose taxes have been relatively flat in recent years because of appraisal limits in the state’s Save Our Homes act, would see higher tax bills under the plan.
Gov. Charlie Crist performed as the Sunshine State’s chief pitch-man, blowing off Florida’s historic population loss and touting the fine weather in a CNBC interview this morning.
Florida saw a drop of 58,000 residents last year, the first population decrease since military residents left the state after World War II.
“It’s not that big a deal, to be honest with you,” Crist shrugged off the decline on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” show today.
The governor then launched into a Sunshine State sales pitch, touting declines in property taxes and property insurance rates and the weather.
“And it’s Florida. It’s a beautiful place. It’s a gorgeous day today down here in South Florida. You just can’t beat the Sunshine State,” said Crist, who is in Miami. Florida I really think is on the rise and it’s a great deal for an awful lot of people, too.”
Although Florida’s unemployment rate is nearly 11 percent, Crist was upbeat about the job market and pointed to Palm Beach County as a shining example.
Palm Beach County’s unemployment rate was 11.7 percent in July, one percentage point above the state average.
“Even in the Palm Beach County area where Scripps and Torrey Pines and some of these other scientific institutes have located, Max Planck…it’s been great for that area of the state,” Crist said. “We’re very pleased with the direction things are going. We wish they were better, don’t misunderstand me. But we’re not sitting still. We’re on the move. And I continue to be optimistic and encouraged about where we’re going.”
Crist, who drew the wrath of fellow Republicans by urging Congress to pass President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus plan, reversed that position on the health care reforms now being considered in Washington.
Palm Beach County commissioners haven’t approved an increase in the general county property tax rate since 1997.
That’s hardly a badge of fiscal discipline. Thanks to a booming real estate market, commissioners over the last 12 years have routinely held the rate steady or lowered it — and still collected massive revenue increases that exceeded inflation or population growth.
Now that property values have cratered, maintaining the current countywide tax rate of $3.78 per $1,000 of appraised value would force commissioners to find about $70 million in cuts for the budget year that begins Oct. 1.
They’ll grapple with the 2009-10 budget again Monday.
Folks who use mirrors to look up women’s dresses or down their shirts better beware.
A Senate panel approved a measure that would broaden the video voyeurism laws to make the practice illegal. Current law prohibits peeping Toms from using electronic devices, like video cameras, to peer at others’ privates but does nothing to bar them from doing the same with a mirror.
Sen. Dave Aronberg filed the measure in response to a Panhandle case in which a man used a mirror to peer up a woman’s skirt at a bookstore.
The judge in that case noted that “there is is no clear prohibition of this reprehensible conduct anywhere in the state of Florida.”
Aronberg, D-Greenacres, provided a simple explanation of the bill (SB 1064) during a rushed Senate Judiciary Committee meeting this morning: “Means you can’t look up women’s skirts using a mirror.”
[caption id="attachment_4574" align="alignright" width="75" caption="Haridopolos"][/caption]A Democratic-backed bill to end a real estate tax loophole, which has been costing the state as much as $200 million a year, got the support of one of the Senate’s most tax-hating Republicans this morning.
The loophole allows sellers to avoid paying a state tax — the documentary stamp fee collected on real estate deals — by arranging transactions so they aren’t classified as sales of real property.
In a Palm Beach County deal three years ago, three properties sold collectively for $600 million but reaped only $2.10 in doc stamps.
Because of the loophole, the state lost $4.2 million, something Florida can ill afford to continue given its current economic anemia, argued Senate Democratic Leader Al Lawson, the bill (SB 2430) sponsor.
“If we had sold 1,500 homes priced at $400,000, it would have generated the amount of money generated on that one sale of $600 million,” Lawson, D-Tallahassee, said at a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting this morning. (more…)
Senate Democratic Leader Al Lawson pushed Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander to expedite the release of Florida’s share of the federal economic stimulus package to get the state’s jobless back to work.
Alexander agreed that lawmakers need to move quickly to get the money already available for road and water projects that could create jobs the fastest.
He said he’d like to get the budget committees working on passing bills as early as tomorrow to appropriate the federal funds for the construction projects and for Medicaid spending. Depending on the House’s position, the legislature could pass the budget amendments as early as next week, he said.
Gov. Charlie Crist appointed Don Winstead to act as the state’s “recovery czar” last week.
But despite the necessary legislative approval for the spending to begin, Winstead has yet to meet with Alexander.
The Florida Senate kicked off the opening day of session by recognizing members and staff who have served in the military.
Today, March 3, marks Florida’s 164th anniversary of being a state, prompting the military honors.
Six senators served in the military, including Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, who served three tours of duty in Vietnam.
Former Senate President Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, also received honors because his son, Stephen, is currently serving in the U.S. Marines.
The military salute began far earlier in the day, however.
As the sun rose over the Capitol this morning, Senate President Jeff Atwater and House Speaker Larry Cretul raised flags which were distributed to the Senate staff whose family members served or are serving in the military. (more…)
Senate President Jeff Atwater opened the 111th legislative session with sobering observations about the task awaiting lawmakers as they prepare to craft a budget amid a bleak and worsening state economy.
“Florida does not have a day or a dollar to waste. There are a hundred reasons why the task is too big, why the decisions are too hard, why the issues are too tough,” the North Palm Beach Republican advised.
“None of us bargained for this. But neither did one in thirteen of our neighbors who have now lost their homes. Nor did one in twelve of our neighbors who are now unemployed. Nor did one in ten of our fellow Floridians who are now dependent on food stamps. They didn’t bargain for this either. We did not choose it. We did not cause it. But senators we are obligated to confront it,” he said.
Atwater presented each senator with a metaphorical gift to aid them in crafting a budget with an anticipated $2 billion-plus spending gap. (more…)
The “sweet freedom” that Gov. Charlie Crist promised in the Amendment 1 property tax cut last year didn’t quite meet the state’s lofty expectations, according to a presentation made this morning to the Senate Finance & Tax Committee.
State economists expected the Save Our Homes “portability” element in the amendment to eliminate $11.6 billion in taxable value from property rolls. But figures from the state Revenue Department show the actual reduction was $3.4 billion.
The reason? Not as many homestead owners moved. Portability lets Floridians transfer their Save Our Homes differential from one homestead to another.
In 2008, 42,647 portability transfers occurred. Of those, 69 percent happened within the same county.
The biggest county-to-county change was the 448 Floridians who moved from Broward to Palm Beach.
Download the PowerPoint presentation here.
ORLANDO _ GOP presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani virtually has made Florida his second home over the past few weeks, but he’s not going near the proposed constitutional amendment dealing with property taxes that’s going to be on the ballot with him on Jan. 29.
The former New York City mayor has made lowering taxes part of the bedrock of his campaign but he said that the proposed amendment is not presidential material.
“I’m not going to get involved in local issues except to say my general sentiment which is you should lower taxes. Lowering taxes would be consistent with what I want to do nationally. But people have to look at the details of that proposal and make their determination about it. But anything moving in the direction of lowering taxes I think would help our economy right now,” he told The Palm Beach Post.
[/caption]A Democratic-backed bill to end a real estate tax loophole, which has been costing the state as much as $200 million a year, got the support of one of the Senate’s most tax-hating Republicans this morning.
Today, March 3, marks Florida’s 164th anniversary of being a state, prompting the military honors.
Senate President Jeff Atwater opened the 111th legislative session with sobering observations about the task awaiting lawmakers as they prepare to craft a budget amid a bleak and worsening state economy.
Atwater presented each senator with a metaphorical gift to aid them in crafting a budget with an anticipated $2 billion-plus spending gap.
