Lower threshold to override tax cuts?

As legislative debate continues over property tax reform Wednesday, Jacksonville lobbyists and legislators are pushing the idea of lowering the threshold for local governments to override tax cuts and caps.
Rep. Dick Kravitz, R-Jacksonville and a member of a special legislative committee studying the property tax plan, said he believes the Legislature will eventually adopt a two-thirds standard for an override vote by local governments’ governing bodies.
Currently, the proposed plan requires a unanimous vote by a city council or county board if a city or county wants to exceed the tax rollback levels required by the legislative plan. Kravitz, a 12-year Jacksonville city councilman, says that is impractical.
“If it’s unanimous, then one person with an opposing view to everyone else could kill it for everybody,” he said. “Lowering it to a two-thirds standard restores local control and still protects taxpayers.”
Meanwhile, among the public voices heard Wednesday by the Senate Finance & Tax Committee was that of Anne Biondo of Jacksonville Beach, who drove to Tallahassee to weigh in on the property tax cut plan being debated by legislators.
A 40-year landlord, Biondo owns eight properties in and around the Beaches, and has seen her total tax bills jump from $15,000 in 1996 to nearly $46,000 in 2006. Biondo said the squeeze has cut into her income — and her ability to offer reasonable rents to tenants.
“I appreciate any consideration you can give me,” Biondo, 62, told the committee. “We need to do something to get relief.”

— J. Taylor Rushing/The Times-Union