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Highlands Today

County Commissioners Consider Requests to Legislature

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By JIM KONKOLY

Highlands Today

Published: January 5, 2009

SEBRING - At their first meeting of the new year on Tuesday, the Highlands County commissioners will discuss possible recommendations to the county's three-member delegation to the Florida Legislature.
Financial concerns dominate the proposed recommendations, compiled by Ricky Helms, the county's assistant administrator, from suggestions made by county staff and the Florida Association of Counties.

Commissioners will consider asking the local legislators to seek: full reimbursement of the county's $4.2 million annual loss in revenue due to Amendment One; maintaining the county's status as a rural county to prevent the loss of small-county grant programs; and seeking better collection of sales taxes on purchases made on the Internet.

State Representatives Denise Grimsley, R-Lake Placid, and Baxter Troutman, R-Winter Haven, and State Senator J.D. Alexander, R-Winter Haven, will meet with the commissioners and representatives of the county's three municipalities from 9:30 to 11 a.m. at the Jan. 21 county commission meeting.

Amendment One, approved by voters in January 2007, gives homeowners with homestead exemption an additional $25,000 reduction in the taxable value of their homes.

In placing the issue on the statewide ballot, the legislature committed to reimbursing every tax dollar lost to the six counties, including Highlands, defined by the state as "fiscally constrained" if Amendment One passed.

But the pending state budget only provides funding to cover about one-third of the lost revenue to those six counties.

Tim Mechling, county budget manager, said that even with expansion of the tax base from new construction, the net loss in revenue from Amendment One to the county is projected at $4.2 million this fiscal year.

For the current fiscal year, he said, the state is reimbursing the county $1.3 million for that loss.

Grimsley, Troutman and Alexander supported full reimbursement for Amendment One revenue losses to the six fiscally constrained counties.

Last year, Highlands County gained 1,480 new year-round residents, raising the population to just over 100,000. Due to the increase, the county would lose its designation as a rural county and be ineligible for state aid to rural counties.

The county has been getting state funding because of its rural status for road improvements, the recycling program, and the detention of juvenile offenders, as well as paying a lower local share for projects with the water management districts.

"(Highlands County) remains a rural county, and the incentives and waivers offered by the rural designation are needed for the county's and the region's economic success," Helms wrote in his suggestion to the commissioners.

Helms recommended asking the legislature to raise the population cut-off for rural designation from 100,000 to 140,000 as long as a county, like Highlands, is a member of a regional rural economic development organization.

Better collection of local sales taxes on purchases and of the "bed tax" for hotel rooms booked on the Internet was recommended by the Florida Association of Counties and is another issue the commissioners will consider.

"This has been an issue statewide," county Administrator Michael Wright said. "A lot of people buy goods on the Internet and don't pay (local sales) taxes. Some Internet sites charge the sales tax and some sites don't, and that is inequitable."

Another possible recommendation the commissioners will consider is urging the legislators to oppose any bills that would repeal the "recapture rule" for the Save Our Homes tax break.

Under Save Our Homes, homeowners with a homestead exemption can see the taxable value of their homes go up no more than 3 percent a year. The "recapture rule" allows a home's taxable valuation to be raised up to 3 percent a year when, as is happening now, fair market value of a home drops, until the taxable value equals fair market value.

Wright said this suggestion is being made to the commissioners as "an equity issue."

Save Our Homes has created a substantial tax inequity between long-time and new homeowners, Wright said. A person buying a home now will pay much more in property taxes than the owner of similar home with the same market value who has owned the home for 10 years or more, he said.

Highlands Today reporter Jim Konkoly can be reached at 863-386-5855 or e-mail jkonkoly@highlandstdoay.com

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