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Highlands Today

Property Appraisers Tout New Tax Plan

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By Jim  Konkoly | Highlands Today

Published: October 9, 2007

SEBRING — When it comes to property tax relief, which the Legislature has promised but not fully provided yet, the state's county property appraisers are giving the lawmakers two bits of advice.

First, simple is much better than complicated.

And second, a universal tax break is better than knocking taxes down for some types of property but not for others.

Highlands County Property Appraiser Raymond McIntyre said those two points are the foundation of the proposal which the Property Appraisers Association of Florida is passing on to the Legislature.

McIntyre, recently elected president of the appraisers association, said the group is calling for a five percent per year reduction in assessed tax value on all property for the next five years.

"We see that as the simplest, most straightforward and easiest approach," McIntyre said as guest speaker at Monday morning's meeting of the Highlands County Homeowners Association.

A circuit court judge in Tallahassee recently tossed the centerpiece of the Legislature's tax relief plan, the so-called "super exemption," off the Jan. 29 primary election ballot. Chief Circuit Judge Charles A. Francis ruled the Legislature's proposed constitutional amendment "confusing and misleading," McIntyre said.

"You understand why the judge ruled like he did," he added, explaining that the amendment promised to protect the Save Our Homes cap on homestead house assessments while, in fact, it would have eventually eliminated Save Our Homes.

Save Our Homes, initiated in 1996, keeps the assessed taxable value on a homestead house –– a permanent resident's primary, year-round home –– from going up more than 3 percent a year.

"The people of Florida really like Save Our Homes . . . (and) the state has heard that message loud and clear," McIntyre said.

The Legislature's constitutional amendment, now off the ballot, would have asked voters to approve
a "super exemption" of 75 percent off the first $200,000 of taxable value on a homesteaded home, plus a 15 percent exemption off taxable value above $200,000, up to a maximum of $500,000, with a minimum total exemption of $50,000.

If the amendment passed, homestead homeowners would have had to chose between the super exemption or keeping their Save Our Homes cap.

Homeowners who would have chosen the super exemption would never have been able to get the Save Our Homes protection on any home in the future, McIntyre said. And, he said, Save Our Homes would have disappeared as people who kept that protection eventually sold their homes, because they could never get Save Our Homes on another home.

"It phases out and eliminates Save Our Homes protection," McIntyre said of the stricken super exemption plan. The wording of the amendment, he said, was "not telling the people of Florida the entire story."

Facing an Oct. 31 deadline to put a tax relief proposal on the Jan. 29 ballot, the Legislature may resurrect the super exemption idea and word it differently, McIntyre said. But, he said, he doubts that will happen.

"It got to be too confusing and it got to be too much to wrap your brain around," he said. Also, he said, there was no groundswell of public support for it.

McIntyre said the appraisers' idea of a five percent per year reduction in assessed value on all properties for five years is not only simple and straightforward, but also "allows everyone some relief."

The super exemption, like Save Our Homes and the $25,000 homestead exemption, helps only homesteaded home owners. McIntyre said it wouldn't benefit business and rental property owners and the owners of vacant and investment properties.

Beyond the intricacies of the super exemption, the stricken constitutional amendment was even more complicated because it contained three other tax relief proposals, for tangible personal property, affordable housing units, and coastal waterfront businesses.

The four issues are distinct tax breaks and should have been placed on the ballot as four separate constitutional amendments, McIntyre said.

"I thought that was a little strange," he said about combining the four issues into one amendment for an all-or-none vote by the people.

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