TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Highlands Today

Floridians Deserve More Property Tax Relief

ADVERTISEMENT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 26, 2008

A recent editorial in this newspaper accused the governor and Legislature of engaging in a "con job" to trick citizens, and quoted local government officials cynically twisting the facts to cast blame for the lack of real property tax relief for Florida property owners.

Rather than playing the blame game, Floridians are looking for government officials to accept responsibility, work together and find real solutions to the property tax problem. Unfortunately, they found little hope for real solutions in either the comments of local government officials or in your editorial.

First, let me make it absolutely clear that Floridians deserve a lot more property tax relief than what they have received so far. As a member of the Florida House of Representatives, I voted again and again for tax cutting measures that would have made a real difference on Floridians' property tax bills. I voted for a measure to eliminate property taxes altogether, as well as a constitutional amendment which would effectively "supersized" Floridians homestead exemptions and cut property tax bills by 25 percent.

All of the measures I supported passed overwhelmingly in the House with bipartisan support, but Floridians never saw relief. In some cases, the state Senate refused to go along. In the case of the "Super Homestead Exemption," local government special interests filed suit to prevent Floridians from voting on the measure. Amendment 1 was not my first choice to cut the people's property taxes, it was our only choice.

This newspaper also ignored the facts about Amendment 1's successes. While it is true that Amendment 1 failed to significantly cut property taxes for some, Amendment 1 was successful in ending the massive year to year tax increases that brought about Florida's property tax crisis. In addition, nowhere was it mentioned that the only reason the Legislature was forced to act was in response to the clamor from the people of Florida, who had grown frustrated with being ignored by local governments who continually raised taxes year after year. Local governments, which by the way need no special permission from the Legislature in order to cut taxes and reduce millage rates.

Instead, local governments continually increased tax rates at a clip far outpacing Floridians ability to pay them. Between 2001 and 2007, Highlands County realized increased tax levies by a staggering 107 percent. The County realized over a 33% increase in revenues between just 2006 and 2007. The smallest annual increase in property tax levies in 8 years came only after the action of the legislature to limit the exploding growth of local government spending.

Certainly with their property tax revenues having more than doubled over the past 8 years, no one in Highlands County government should be complaining about the amount of revenues that property taxpayers are paying. Instead, it is Highlands County residents that ought to be asking why their local government demands 107 percent more property tax revenues than 8 years ago and if the services they are now receiving are 107 percent better.

Like the rest of the country, Florida's economic challenges are rooted in the crisis. Unlike the rest of the country, our housing crisis was made worse by local governments who taxed and spent at an unsustainable level and refused to reduce taxes to a level Florida's families could afford.

Rather than pointing the finger toward Tallahassee and ignoring their own culpability, local government leaders should put aside territorial bickering and partner with all levels of government to responsibly reduce property taxes and introduce a greater level of tax fairness to our broken property tax system.

Denise Grimsley is the state Representative for District 77 and lives in Lake Placid.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT