Breaking News: Senate passes property tax cut proposal

Senate passes property tax cut proposal

BY MARC CAPUTO

The Miami Herald

On a party line vote, the Florida Senate passed a resolution Thursday asking voters to supersize homestead exemptions by as much as $195,000 for homes worth $500,000 or more.

If the House goes along, the proposal would be put before voters on the November 2008 ballot, unless Senate Democrats drop their objections and decide to put the vote on the Jan. 29 ballot.

Democrats bashed the $16 billion proposal, saying it primarily helps homeowners — rather than owners of other types of real estate — and cuts too much from schools: $7.2 billion over four years.

Sen. Mike Haridopolos, a Melbourne Republican, acknowledged the proposal isn’t “perfect. You’ll never get one of those out of Tallahassee.”

But, he pointed out the plan gives deep tax relief, helps solve the portability issue and ultimately leaves voters in charge of approving the constitutional amendment.

Republicans also changed the plan somewhat to allow people to keep their existing protection under the Save Our Homes provision, which limits increases on taxable property value at three percent.

Originally, the proposed constitutional amendment sought to phase out Save Our Homes and force homeowners from enjoying its protections if they benefitted from the new system. The new system would super-size homestead exemptions, giving homeowners a 75 percent write-off on their first $200,000 in market-based ”just value” and an additional 15 percent write-off on the next $300,000.

Earlier in this week’s special session on property taxes, Democrats made much of the fact that Save Our Homes would disappear for some, but that their tax-assessment increases could be greater in future years. That could mean some would eventually pay more in taxes in future years.

Democrats opposed the fix when it was brought up this morning.

Sen. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, said the new proposal exemplified all that was wrong with the tax bill’s secretive, last-minute changes sprung on the public. Deutch pointed out that no one knew what the cost of the fix would be.

But Republicans Sen. Don Gaetz of For Walton Beach marveled at the ”role reversal,” with Democrats fighting something they once appeared to support. He said Democrats just opposed tax reform regarldess of what was proposed.

Unmentioned by Gaetz: Democrats will likely vote for $15.6 billion in tax cuts today.

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