Senate approves constitutional amendment
The Florida Senate launched the beginning of the end of a historic property tax reform session Thursday with a final vote to send voters a significantly expanded — but optional — homestead exemption.
Senators voted 25-12 to approve a constitutional amendment that offers an expanded homestead provision that gives property owners 75 percent off the first $200,000 of a property’s value, and 15 percent off the next $300,000. A date for the amendment election — either January or November 2008 — has not been set yet.
But the amendment would also give voters the choice instead of keeping their slice of the state’s popular Save Our Homes provision, which caps a property’s growth at 3 percent a year.
Such a choice means that since some taxpayers will elect to stay in the Save Our Homes program, the impact of lost revenue to local governments will be less than imagined. Instead of the original $16 billion price tag, the total impact could be as low as $7 billion.
The last-minute amendment was conceived by Senate Majority Leader Dan Webster, a Winter Garden Republican, and Rep. Dean Cannon, a Winter Park Republican leading the House side of negotiations.
It was also a practical realization that the proposal was rapidly becoming unpopular because many property owners didn’t like being forced to give up their Save Our Homes provision for the long-term uncertain savings of the new exemption. The proposal would have allowed Floridians to retain their Save Our Homes status if they would have benefited more than the new exemption, but if not, it would have forced homesteaded property owners into the move.
“People were scared to give up Save Our Homes to go into this new thing, even if it may be better in the short term,” said Sen. Jim King, R-Jacksonville. “We were saying that if what we planned is better than what they’ve got, they don’t have a choice. And that was bothering a lot of them.”
The idea still requires approval by the House of Representatives, which is debating the package this afternoon. Final approval could come later today or tonight.
— J. Taylor Rushing/The Times-Union
Senators voted 25-12 to approve a constitutional amendment that offers an expanded homestead provision that gives property owners 75 percent off the first $200,000 of a property’s value, and 15 percent off the next $300,000. A date for the amendment election — either January or November 2008 — has not been set yet.
But the amendment would also give voters the choice instead of keeping their slice of the state’s popular Save Our Homes provision, which caps a property’s growth at 3 percent a year.
Such a choice means that since some taxpayers will elect to stay in the Save Our Homes program, the impact of lost revenue to local governments will be less than imagined. Instead of the original $16 billion price tag, the total impact could be as low as $7 billion.
The last-minute amendment was conceived by Senate Majority Leader Dan Webster, a Winter Garden Republican, and Rep. Dean Cannon, a Winter Park Republican leading the House side of negotiations.
It was also a practical realization that the proposal was rapidly becoming unpopular because many property owners didn’t like being forced to give up their Save Our Homes provision for the long-term uncertain savings of the new exemption. The proposal would have allowed Floridians to retain their Save Our Homes status if they would have benefited more than the new exemption, but if not, it would have forced homesteaded property owners into the move.
“People were scared to give up Save Our Homes to go into this new thing, even if it may be better in the short term,” said Sen. Jim King, R-Jacksonville. “We were saying that if what we planned is better than what they’ve got, they don’t have a choice. And that was bothering a lot of them.”
The idea still requires approval by the House of Representatives, which is debating the package this afternoon. Final approval could come later today or tonight.
— J. Taylor Rushing/The Times-Union
posted by J.T. Rushing at
2:32 PM
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