House Speaker Marco Rubio lamented today’s court ruling that knocked the Amendment 5 property tax cut off the ballot.

“It appears that when it comes to tax cuts, the courts have taken some extreme liberties in how they’re deciding,” Rubio said in an interview.

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A Leon County Circuit Court judge is expected to decide by tomorrow whether to strike from the November ballot a constitutional amendment that would cut property taxes that pay for schools and cap assessments for non-homestead properties.

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At a press conference today to unveil giveme5florida.com, Amendment 5 supporter Rep. Darryl Rouson, a St. Pete Dem and a member of the TBRC that put the measure on the ballot, said the change would help low-income minority homeowners.

“This is also good for black folks in distressed and poor communities where property taxes are sometimes killing them and hastening gentrification,” said Rouson, who is black. “This will help people maintain homes … It works for everybody.”

However, a Palm Beach Post analysis in March found the amendment would mean a tax increase for state’s poorest residents while providing a break for its richest.

Florida TaxWatch is scheduled to release its own analysis of the amendment at a press conference Wednesday.

The property tax cut that the state’s voters overwhelmingly decided to give themselves this year will not result in significant savings for most homeowners, Palm Beach County leaders warned Monday.

Less than five months after voters went to the polls, County Administrator Bob Weisman said he would recommend an 8.3 percent increase in the county’s property tax rate to recoup the revenue lost as a result of the housing market meltdown.

The hike would eat away much, if not all, of the tax savings that homesteaded property owners thought they would see as a result of the constitutional amendment and state-mandated budget cuts – reductions that Gov. Charlie Crist once said would make their taxes “drop like a rock.”

Read the rest from Jennifer Sorentrue here. Check out today’s front page here.

Despite promises to avoid raising property taxes that pay for schools, a plan from state House Republicans would hit property owners in Palm Beach, Miami-Dade, Hillsborough and 17 other counties with tax increases, according to a Palm Beach Post analysis.

Read the rest of the story here. See today’s front page here.

Senate Democratic Leader Steve Geller, who has little appetite for another constitutional amendment for property taxes, had a few, well, issues about about a measure approved today by the Senate Community Affairs Committee.

The bill (SB 2190) would limit property taxes to 1.35 percent of a property’s value.

“Right now we’re supposed to be voting for a bill that we don’t know how it would work, we don’t know how it would be implemented, and we don’t know what the fiscal impact is, but we should pass it out of this committee. Do I fully understand?” Geller asked.

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The grocery store cashier, the public school teacher and the young family trying to establish roots in suburbia could lose more of their income to state government under a proposed tax change that would give the state’s wealthiest residents the biggest benefit, a Palm Beach Post analysis shows.

Read the rest of the analysis here. Check out today’s front page here.

The Taxation and Budget Reform Commission just approved a constitutional amendment for the November ballot that would prevent marinas and other “working waterfronts” to be assessed based on how the property is used, instead of how it could be used.

The distinction has meant that marinas along the Palm Beach County coastline have been assessed as if they were condominiums. The proposal, which needs a final, techincal vote, could save working waterfront property owners (and cost schools and local governments) roughly $70 million next year.

Last year, political watchers marveled at how Gov. Charlie Crist consistently stole the property tax spotlight from House Speaker Marco Rubio. There was Crist at the springtime rally Rubio supporters put together on the steps of the old Capitol. Another memorable moment was Crist crashing the speaker’s meeting with business leaders in a House office.

But the Republican governor was not in attendance today for a rally Rubio, R-West Miami, held for about 300 property tax opponents in the House chamber. His absence was noted by the crowd, which at one point broke out into heckles and demanded, “Where is drop like a rock?”

“We’d like to see the governor, Speaker Rubio,” yelled the man in the center of the above picture. “We gave him his vote. Now we’re here to see him.”

So where was Crist? His schedule indicated he was occupied: meeting with interns from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Sen. Jeff Atwater, the chamber’s designated president for next year, said in an interview today that the property tax cut being prepared by the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission looks kind of like the infamous high speed rail proposal that Florida voters put into the state constitution (before they took it out).

“Before, you got some new gift in Florida with no way to pay for it,” said Atwater, R-North Palm Beach. “You got a high-speed rail, but no way to pay for it. Or smaller class sizes, but no way to pay for it. Now, you want a tax break, but no way to pay for it.”

“It’s always better that when you ask the voters to decide something constitutional, that you ask them to decide on an equation that has equal value on both sides.”

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A potential $3.9 billion hole in Florida’s public education budget could be plugged, in part, by taxing sales of religious items, ostrich feed and pet-grooming services.

Those are among the services that could lose their sales tax exemption if legislators are forced to comply with a proposed constitutional amendment that would slash property taxes.

Read the rest of the story here. Check out today’s front page here.

Florida and Michigan appear headed in opposite directions in resolving their primary disputes. Read the story here or check out our politics page here.

Voters will probably get the chance to cut their property taxes that pay for education. But can public schools afford it? Read Dara Kam’s story here.

Check out today’s front page here.

More recent cartoons from Don Wright here.

Also on the Post’s op-ed page, the editorial board applauds a Gov. Crist budget recommendation to reduce aid to the state’s private colleges.

In a final push to get voters to support the property tax amendment, Gov. Charlie Crist will waive signs at intersections in four counties across the state.

Crist is scheduled to be in Boca Raton around 1:30 p.m. today at the intersection of Glades Road and St. Andrews Blvd.

His day of sign waiving began in St. Petersburg and ends in Orlando.

In a campaign stop in South Florida today, Gov. Charlie Crist said Amendment 1 wasn’t the last step for property tax changes, but that it might be the “last chance” if the amendment doesn’t pass.

“If this were to not pass on Tuesday, I think it would take the wind out of the sails in cutting property taxes in Florida,” he said. “It’s very important to keep that momentum going.”

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With just days until the primary, Gov. Charlie Crist will make two campaign stops in South Florida Thursday to promote his property tax amendment.

Crist’s afternoon visit to Palm Beach County will bring him to Lake Worth. Before the Palm Beach County stop, Crist will campaign in Broward County.

Meanwhile, in St. Lucie County, the local Realtor association sent out pro-amendment mailers to about 19,000 residents. The group also has distributed more than 1,500 ‘Yes on 1’ yard signs around the county, according to a statement.

“It is critical that Floridians understand that they will not lose their 3 percent Save our Homes’ cap and that Amendment 1 brings the added benefit of portability,” said 2008 FAR President Chuck Bonfiglio.

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.

Former House Speaker Tom Feeney told the Q this afternoon that he is none too excited about the tax changes proposed in Amendment 1, although he probably would vote for it to support Save Our Homes portability.

“Candidly, it’s a lot less of a reform than I would like to see,” Feeney said after at a Mitt Romney event at Daytona Beach College, pictured above. “It’s a lot less of a break than I would like to see and I don’t know that its going to have the long-term stimulus effect that Florida needs … It’s not even a half a slice of bread.”

Romney so far has been mum on the constitutional change that Gov. Charlie Crist is promoting. “Right now we’re still learning about it,” Romney spokesman Kevin Madden said.

Karen Woodall, chairwoman of Florida is Our Home, and Florida Association of Realtors Vice President John Sebree square off today on The Palm Beach Post opinion page as they try to convince voters to their competing opinions on the property tax changes on the ballot next week.

Sebree, who has been traveling the state for weeks to support the constitutional amendment, writes that the amendment has a little something for all property owners, which can spark the real estate market. He points to a study that shows new home owners spend $9,000 on their house in the first year.

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