Unbelievable! After all of these months of wrangling, town hall meetings, etc, this is the best that they could come up with. The major points of the proposed property tax amendment, which the citizens of Florida will vote on 1/29/08 are as follows:
The homestead exemption will be increased from $25K to $40 or 50K depending on who you speak to. According to the Orlando Sentinel it will be $40K, but a news report on TV and an email from Governor Charlie Crist both refer to “doubling the homestead exemption.”
There will be some portability of the Save Our Homes, whether you are trading up or down in the market.
Businesses will now have a $25K exemption on tangible personal property; and,
Businesses and non-homesteaded homeowners will have a 10% annual cap on their tax increases.
For the past six months we’ve been hearing all of this ballyhooing about property tax reform and this is what they are giving us? To most, this will only amount to an approximately $240 savings. Big Deal!! What happened to the supposed roll-back of our tax base to 2004 levels?? Now, that would have been a savings of sorts. But this is going to do very little for most people that are already experiencing a crunch.
To further exasperate the matter in today’s Orlando Sentinel, they are quoting Gov. Crist as stating that “taxpayers ‘should have hope in their hearts because it’s only going to get better and better and better. This is what they want. This is what they deserve.’”
Damn, I would like some of those drugs that he must be doing. OK, just kidding, but you obviously get my point. I can only think that the governor is alluding to the idea that there will be more tax cuts in the future. I think this is bogus. Once a tax cut is voted on and enacted, that is all we are going to see for quite a while. If this is all they can come up with now, do you seriously think that they’ll add to it in the near future? Look what they’ve done with the property insurance crisis, that should give you an idea.
The sad thing is that this will probably pass because people will be willing to settle for a little something than what they may perceive as nothing.
The legislature did do one thing right in that they’ve included portability of your SOH. Yes, this should increase sales in that people will not feel as ‘trapped’ in their homes as they may be now. But this is not enough. Do we demand more?
I have to wonder how much power we have as voters. I apologize if I appear cynical here, but… Yes, we do have the power to elect our officials and even vote them out of office. But what happened to ‘of the people, for the people, by the people.’ Unfortunately, but politics appears to be just another form of Big Business and the pandering to of such.
Look at the data, but distance between and have’s and have not’s is ever so widening. Moreso, then ever before and there is no end in sight of this abating.
Since I’m getting off the topic somewhat… Crist signed his letter ‘May G-d bless you…’ Now, don’t get me wrong, I do believe in g-d, but that is neither here nor there. What the heck ever happened to the separation of church & state? More and more we see the two intermingling.
Till next time – Marc It Sold!
There are a couple of things that I’ve been noticing about the real estate market that I wish to relay to you. But, before I get to that there are some miscellaneous meanderings that I wish to write about.
The many of you that know me, are aware of the fact that I try not to be a braggart. Yes, we all tend to do it at some time or another in our life. This is only human nature. I try to make it a point to not do so for the simple fact that I do not wish to put others ill at ease. So with that said…
Here I am where it all started – that is my blogging. I’m on a vacation of sorts in Ft. Lauderdale. Actually right now, I’m sitting on the veranda of the Atlantic Hotel, right across from the beach, drinking a Pina Colada. Yummy, it is!!
It always amazes me at what life throws at us. Or, maybe, I should say at what paths our lives take us. I’ve said this before, and must reiterate that I consider myself a very lucky and fortunate person. Yes, I’ve had my ups and downs just like the rest of us. I doubt if there is anyone that can say otherwise about themselves. The degrees to which vary and we may not be able to see that from our standpoint, but that is just it – it’s from our standpoint and perspective.
I’ve been planning on coming down to Fort Lauderdale for many weeks. This week before I came down I took my little girl, Nicci (Chihuahua) to the vet. Unfortunately, she came home with me, but I had to bury her. To say that this has upset me is an understatement. But, I have to remember that she had almost 14 good years and she was such a good girl & companion. She was my baby!
But getting back to what I was saying earlier, things occur & sometimes you have to wonder. Maybe there’s a connection and maybe there isn’t, but since that fateful day with Nicci, my phone has basically been ringing off of the hook with buyers & sellers.
The reason that I mention this is because there were a couple of items in the newspaper today that I will get to shortly. Additionally, I was talking with an associate of mine & she said the same thing about the buyers all of a sudden coming out of the woodwork.
Now, don’t get me wrong, the market is going to take quite a while to readjust itself. There is no doubt about this. But this obviously bodes well with somewhat a shift in the climate.
I received an email today from ORRA, the local Realtor association, stating that the median price homes in the local market went up in May. Thirty year mortgages dropped slightly this week from an eleven month high of last week. But they are still under 7%. The Florida legislature has finalized what they are planning to do with property taxes & I think that the governor is signing such. There was also an Associated Press article stating that “The U. S. economy should expand modestly in coming months as a healthy job market continues to trump weakness in housing prices…”
Again, I must reiterate, it will take quite a while for the market to even out, but it does seem as if there are finally some changes in sight. We can only hope so.
Until next time – Marc It Sold!
Well, the Legislature has reconvened for a special session & as I may have stated previously, I’m very concerned that we will not see anything good come out of this. There are many reasons why I state this. Firstly, the proposed plan, which is somewhat different from what I’ve previously blogged about, is still inadequate. And there is obviously quite a bit of legislators that feel this way as well. Many of the legislators, including some Republicans, are quite miffed that this currently proposed plan was worked out basically behind closed doors. Marco Rubio, the House Speaker from Miami, stated basically that they have a choice of the proposed plan or no change to the current system. As I’ve stated before, it just seems that he looking to make a name for himself. He’s already proposed a couple of plans which did not merit anything more than a cursory notice.
It’s quite sad because the only victims here are the people of the State of Florida. This is true with the tax situation and what we’ll soon talk about, property insurance. But, before I go there, there is one major note that should be brought to your attention. The current proposed property tax seems to be only affording most of us a mediocre savings that would basically be obliterated within four to five years time. And as I’ve stated before, I have a major issue with our legislators just replacing one flawed system with an equally flawed system. What’s the purpose except for them to say “Look at what we’ve done for you!” and most likely not be in office when we have to repair that system. Go figure!
Anyway to Property Insurance and Citizens Property Insurance Corp, in particular. The long and short of this, and you may have read this in a previous blog of mine, Citizens was created by the Florida legislature basically to protect Floridians and offer policies to homeowners who could not buy property insurance elsewhere on the open market. Many insurers have left the state, especially in writing policies on property.
The problem here is that Citizens has been allowed to grow, recently, way beyond its proposed structure. Firstly, it was underfunded at the beginning and we’ve found ourselves having to bail it out twice already. We pay for this everytime we pay our insurance whether it be to Citizens or another carrier. At present, Citizens is being told that it has to rollback it’s rates to that of 2006. Sounds great to the consumer, but what happens if there is an unfortunate catastrophe in the State of Florida. Hum, let’s think! Oh, I know, we’ll be bailing Citizens out again. This has to stop! It is not fair to the people of this state to consistently bail this company out of bankruptcy.
Additionally, as I was previously alluding to, Citizens has been allowed to go way beyond it’s scope. They offer cheap insurance to basically irresponsible coastal developers. They build these large high-rise condos on the beach in areas that are prone to disasters. Does this make good business sense to anyone? Please let me know. Let me also mention, most carriers would not insure a project like this or, at the very least, at the rates that Citizens is charging these developers.
Let’s take this one step further, so they build a coastal high-rise. They sell these units and now the unit owners and the condo association need insurance. Since other carriers would probably not be interested in insuring this property in the first place, where do you think most of these people will wind up purchasing a policy from? You got it – Citizens. Do you possibly see a problem here?
The other problem is that people in the state’s interior will be paying for this mess and they do not deserve that responsibility. Our legislators need to take action and do it now! They need to be more responsible about the development of our coastlines. They need to be fiscally responsible to the people, not big business.
Please do not get me wrong. I am not a radical or subversive or whatever may come to mind in that respect. But, I do firmly believe if you have a problem or a broken system it needs to be repaired. Just as if you had a broken tooth, you’d go to the dentist. You just wouldn’t let it remain open and possibly abscess.
This brings me to another insurance matter that is being handled incorrectly also. It seems that the Legislature is planning on allowing our No-fault insurance for automobiles lapse when it becomes due in October. The reason behind this supposedly is that there is too much corruption in the fact of people abusing the system. Under the current system, you must carry at least $10K of Personal Injury Protection (PIP) coverage. Basically, the elimination of this will allow people to drive uninsured. This will only create a greater strain on us & also our hospitals. Yes, again the system needs to be fixed. It is definitely flawed and rank with fraud, but the elimination of it is not the correct answer. Deal with the fraud. Eliminate that, but not the whole concept.
Again, thank you for reading my rantings and ravings.
Until next time – Marc It Sold!
I’ve been very concerned about where we are going with the property tax reform, as I am sure most of you in Florida are as well. Last evening there was a Town Hall Meeting in Apopka with Rep. Bryan Nelson. The plan that was revealed was interesting, but I am still very skeptical.
My first order of skeptism has to do with the implementation date. Previously it had been talked about by members of the Florida legislature that they would ask for a special election in August of this year. Both Mr. Nelson and an article in the Orlando Sentinel have stated that we will not vote on this until January 29, 2008, the same time that we vote for the Presidential Primary. Now here is one place where it gets a little conflicting. Rep. Nelson stated that we would not see any property tax abatement until they become due in November ’08, yet the Sentinel stated that it is understood that we will see immediate cuts this year.
Well, if we are going to vote until January, they are not going to institute this tax reform retroactively. Can you imagine the mess that this will make?
Anyway, it gets even more interesting. OK, so we know and understand that Save Our Homes, albeit even though it was full of good intentions, is a flawed system that needs to be changed. Well, this is what they are planning on doing. Presently, we take the assessed value of our home, subtract the exempt value to give you the taxable value and multiply that times the millage rate that is set by the city and county commissioners.
Under the new plan, without SOH, you would take the Just Market Value (not sales price or market value as determined on the open market) and multiply that by 20% to get to your taxable value for homes of under $300K. Therefore, you would be receiving an 80% exemption. For homes valued from $300K – 1M, the exemption would be 70%. Personally, I think that this is too high going up to $1M. Unfortunately, we know that they will be appeasing a lot of well-to-do people with special interests, but we’ll get to that later.
Now, there is another twist, this will not pertain to the education tax that we currently pay. That will still be worked under the current program because they do not want education to be affected. While I understand this, that only makes the system convoluted, so now we are going to have two taxing systems.
Additionally, if you have greater savings under the current plan, than you will be allowed to stay with the Save Our Homes, but the rate would be increased from the current ceiling of 3% to 5-7%.
Are you confused yet? It just seems that we are taking one flawed system and replacing with another flawed system. The Orange County Property Appraiser was at the meeting, I had wanted to ask him what the cost would be for his department to implement this new system.
The property appraiser stated that the loss in revenue to Orange County would amount to approximately $73M. Yet, the Orlando Sentinel stated today that we are talking twice that figure. This is very disconcerting. Were we just being fed information that might appease us? How can there be so much disparity?
They did show where the cuts would come from in general terms. There was, of course, some from fire & police, but the major portion was just lumped in a general category for programs. Unfortunately, this means that the programs that are really needed are going to be cut or totally eliminated. According to the Sentinel, it appears that the cuts will come from health care, after school programs, etc.
Being on the Board of a not-for-profit health care, I am very concerned that we are going to further push an already stretched segment of the health care industry. There have already been cuts on the federal and state levels as to reimbursement, etc. Health care clinics serve all, but are a main source for the working poor and those with no insurance. A further cut in funding will only force these centers to eliminate some services, cut hours or even worse close much needed centers. This will only put a greater burden on our hospital emergency rooms which is where these people would be forced to go for medical care.
Let’s get real, the special interests need to be taken care of! So, again the people that are in the most need will be the ones that will have the least benefit & relief.
When you really come down to the numbers, it’s again the ones that have are going to get more of a benefit than the have-nots. This is definitely a shame.
There are too many topics that come to mind that I would like to touch on, but don’t’ want to be any more long-winded than I’m presently. So, hopefully, within in the next week, I’ll be writing a little more about Property Insurance and they way our Government works. It is time for some changes to be made. The system is broken and needs to be fixed – not mended. And the reality of all this, is that we are the victims, we are paying for it all.
Until next time – Marc It Sold!
Unfortunately here, in the State of Florida, we have a couple of items that are creating havoc with our economy and even forcing some into foreclosure. But that is another story and those people need to take blame for getting into something that they shouldn’t have in the first place.
Anyway, back to property insurance. Here’s an example. I know some people in western Oregon. They have a home of about 4000sf on many acres with out buildings, etc. Their homeowners insurance runs them $1000 a year plus another $500 for earthquake insurance. I on the other hand have an approximately 1500sf home on about 1/3 or an acre and am paying approximately the same for my homeowners insurance.
I need to backtrack a little to a previous post where I wrote about insurance companies and actuaries & how they had to know what they were getting into and the rates that they have been charging. Well, I’ve come to learn a little more about the history of homeowners insurance in Florida.
Insurance companies competed by keeping their rates low & then came Hurricane Andrew. After that catastrophe, most had huge losses but 11 of them went bankrupt. So the remaining companies started raising rates to match their level of risk & cancelling policy renewals.
Then our government decided that we needed to do something about this and passed laws to keep our insurance rates down. And then, finally, they created Citizens Property Insurance. This was to be the insurer of last resort. Remember this as we come back to that in a little while.
Well, lo & behold, then came the hurricanes of ’04 & ’05. Unfortunately, this bankrupt some companies as well. Oh yes, I forgot to mention, one of those companies was Citizens Property Insurance. But, don’t worry, we got taxed to bail it out. It even states on everyone’s policies in the State of Florida something to the effect of “Citizens Property Insurance Assessment, Florida Catastrophe Fund Assessment, Citizen’s Recoupment Fee,” etc.
Now, our Governor is asking that these insurance companies pass the buck or I should say the bill along to their customers outside the state of Florida. Additionally, they are allowing Citizens to grow and they were allowing them to raise their rates as well, but then enacted legislation to freeze their rates. They were giving Citizens the go ahead to compete head on with other insurers so they were no longer the insurer of last resort, when you couldn’t find insurance elsewhere.
So now, Citizens has basically gone belly up twice and, as I’ve stated, we are paying for this. It may sound good that there is an insurer out there with affordable rates. But what’s ultimately going to happen is that they are going to grow into probably the largest insurer in the State of Florida and when another unfortunate catastrophe hits this state we are all going to be left with the bill. It’s just a matter of time before Citizens Property Insurance goes bankrupt again.
Citizens Property Insurance is a problem that needs to be addressed quickly!
Until next time – Marc It Sold!
I was actually planning on writing about our other nemesis – Homeowners Insurance, but today’s Orlando Sentinel had much ado about property taxes and Marco Rubio’s new plan.
It seems that State Rep. Rubio’s previous plan was too drastic for many in the Senate, if not the House, to swallow. As you may have read in my previous posts, I have been a strong opponent to his plan. His new plan just seems to be a rip off of the one I wrote about yesterday, the one that was proposed by David Simmons of Maitland.
Unfortunately, Rubio’s new plan again goes too far. He is proposing that we pay property taxes on only 20% of the first $300K of the assessed value; 30% for the next $700K; and, then 70% of any assessed value over $1M.
This equates to a home with an assessed value of $300K, would only have a taxable value of $60K. As good as this sounds & what it will mean to our pocketbooks, this is absolutely outrageous – totally ridiculous. I don’t know if this man is trying to just make a name for himself in the short-term or what. My mind is just boggled thinking of the repercussions from a move like this. Yes, I agree that we need property tax reform, but come on guys, let’s use our heads.
Can you imagine the catastrophic cuts that will have to occur on the city & county level if something like this passes. Granted, I agree that there needs to be some trimming & more accountability, but this is not the way to go about it. With cuts like this it has to affect our basic services, nevermind what it could do to education.
Yes, a tax cut will finally get rid of Save Our Homes & at least we are seeing some that might be more equitable. Yes, a tax cut will also allow some long-term homeowners to possibly move who otherwise may have felt trapped because they might have been hit with a huge tax increase.
If Rubio’s plan or something similar with drastic tax cuts comes to fruition, all we are going to see is an increase in taxes somewhere else. Again, this is absolutely ridiculous. And the fact of the matter is that we will most likely pay more in the long run.
Hmm, so what purpose does this really serve except for someone getting their name in lights. I hope that I am wrong about Mr. Rubio, but all the signs point otherwise.
I look forward to seeing a property tax cut – as a homeowner & as a Realtor®. I don’t like what’s happened with property taxes. Tax relief will surely help fuel more housing transactions. I think that it would surely help turn around a market that we are seeing flounder. I know that it would surely bring more buyers out of the woodwork. But again, our lawmakers have to be realistic.
Until next time – Marc It Sold!
Finally someone has come up with a tax-cut proposal that is somewhat realistic. David Simmons, a state representative from Maitland, has proposed a property tax plan that will offer big tax cuts, but asks homeowners of larger more expensive homes to get a lesser tax cut percentage. More in line with how income taxes work. Basically using a sliding scale approach.
Here’s how this would work. All homeowners would get a tax break of 65% on the first $100K of assessed value of their home. For homes valued $100-200K, these people would receive a 55% tax cut on the second $100K of the homes taxable value. This would be further reduced to a 45% tax cut on the next $100K of taxable value and so forth with homes valued over $600K receiving a 5% tax break.
Breaking this down, this would mean that a home valued at $200K (remember we are talking assessed value not the market value of a property) would pay taxes on approximately 40% of the homes value, while the owner of a $500K home would pay on approximately 56% of the homes value.
This is much more reasonable and differs greatly from Marco Rubio’s plan which is to eliminate the property tax altogether on your primary residence & to raise the sales-tax. This would have created a major shortfall in revenue for local and county governments. Fiscally, I could never see this work in the long-run.
As some of you have read my previous posts, my main concern with all of the tax proposals out there was that they were offering to fix a flawed system with an equally flawed system. Yes, these politicians could all say, “Look what we’ve done for you.” That would only be short-lived.
What are the implications of creating these revenue shortfalls? Well, I wouldn’t be surprised if we would see a property tax again in the near future.
Granted, I am not saying that the tax cut plan proposed by David Simmons is flawless, but it seems to be the most realistic & best conceived of all that have been offered.
Until next time – MARC IT SOLD!
It’s just absolutely amazing to me that people must think we are stupid. Here are two things in particular that I’ve just come across.
My last post had to do with the Florida property tax issue. This morning I received an email from a Realtor in Miami that must be a supporter of Marco Rubio, the House Speaker. Let me just give you a brief history here. He is proposing that we eliminate the property tax on primary residences & reduce the property tax on other properties by 20%. To offset this revenue loss he is wishing to increase the state sales tax by 2.5%. Ok, so here’s what their website states, “Lower taxes and lower tax rates on apartment buildings and other businesses will reduce rents and keep rental housing affordable.” Who is kidding whom here? Let’s say you have a landlord who is receiving X dollars for rent on a unit & the property tax on that unit is reduced. Do you think that this landlord will reduce the rent below the X dollars that are getting now? But yet, there they have it in writing trying to persuade you to their point of view. They will get some people to believe them & I guess that this is enough - that is what they are after.
OK, enough of that one. Here’s another I encountered the other day from an insurance agent. I decided to shop around because the insurance on my primary residence just went up way too high and too fast. Again, a brief history, I decided to change agents a couple of years back. The main reason for this is that I needed an Umbrella Policy to better protect my interests & myself. Two years ago, I paid $860 yearly insurance on my primary residence, which was higher than I’d previously paid, but was willing to do so. Last year, this increased to $1030 & this year my renewal came in at $1453. I had one claim back in ‘98 & the home is just over 10 years old.
So now to the story, I was shopping around and speaking to an agent. She said to me that our rates would not be this high right now if insurers were charging the correct amount all along. She further stated that our insurance rates in Florida have been much too low for too long. OK, so here’s my issue with these statements. Insurers have actuaries work for them. These mathematicians create formulas that the insurers use in rating risk. Risk is the underlying factor in insurance. Things are cyclical - whether we are talking about the weather, life, real estate - it really all is very cyclical. So, getting back to insurers, do you think that they are not going to charge us enough to cover their risk? Seriously, now. This is what this woman was telling me.
The insurers ran this garbage back after Andrew in ‘92 and again after all of the ‘04 hurricanes. Granted, ‘04 was an anomaly, but how many years did we go without any severe storms that cost the insurance companies. If you look at their books, you will note that they are still making a profit.
Anyway, enough of my ranting! I just really ticks me off when people think we are stupid. It’s fine to get your point across, but be realistic. Don’t make it out that we are stupid! That is just such a lack of respect & that is something that I will not deal with. We all deserve respect!
Thanks again for listening to my meanderings.
Until next time - Marc It Sold!
I obviously haven’t written in a couple of months. It is not that I had not wanted, but did not wish to write about the same topic that has been so prevalent, the local market. I was firstly concerned about the negativity that some may derive from this, even though we are in a quite healthy market in Central Florida. I also needed some more inspiration to write.
A client of mine had suggested that I write about the property tax issue that we are experiencing. My first thought & reply was ‘no’. I did not want to write about such a controversial topic. Now, many of you who know me, would be surprised by this response. And you would be rightly so. So, here goes.
I am not aware of what is happening in other parts of the country, but here in Florida we are in the midst of a property tax system that is quite flawed. My concerns are varied, but one major concern is that the politicians will try to do a quick fix & tell us what a wonderful job that they’ve done in saving us money, only to cost us more in the long run down the road.
There is history behind this, which I’ve previously written about. We have in Florida SOH (Save Our Homes), which was passed in 1992. This limited the Taxable Value of your home to a 3% increase, if such is your primary residence. The purpose of this tax measure was to help the elderly from being taxed out of their homes. Unfortunately, even though this may have helped accomplish that task, it more benefited the well to do with expensive mansions, etc. They received a larger benefit.
Now, many proposals are being pandered about to supposedly fix our flawed property tax system. But to fix a flawed system with an equally flawed system is ludicrous.
One of the main proposals is to eliminate our property tax (on your primary residence) and have this replaced with a higher State Sales Tax. While some may feel that this is fair, it really isn’t. Again, the people that will benefit the most as those that have. The people with the mansions (big expensive homes or whatever you wish to call them) will benefit the most. The people that don’t have, those in the lower income brackets, will end up paying more via a higher sales tax and if will affect their pocketbook more.
Not only that, but this is just as inequitable to the renters. They too will be paying a higher sales tax and they are not even property owners. Some may jump the gun and say well everyone should have a larger share in paying for governmental services. But you have to remember that the owner of that apartment complex is already paying property taxes, they would not be exempt if there were a repeal of the property tax laws for primary residences.
It’s also been talked about that a Florida resident should be able to take their current SOH with them when they move; and, generally to a more expensive home. This would only worsen an already flawed system.
And doubling the homestead exemption is not really the answer also. The property appraisers are already shoring up their books and the tax rolls for a change. It generally used to be that the ‘Just Market Value’ on the property appraiser’s tax rolls was approximately 80% of the fair market value on the open market. With the increase in home values that we’ve seen over the past several years, this number became a much lower percentage. But if you check out the property ‘Just Market Values’ now (Orange County, in particular), you will see that many are at approximately 89%. So, you can see that the property appraisers are already trying to shore up values depending on what happens in the legislature.
Let me put this in another perspective. I have a friend whose home is on the market. They purchased the home 10 years ago and their property tax for 2006 with the SOH & Homestead Exemption came to $844. A prospective purchaser asked me what their taxes would be & when I figured it out I was totally astonished. Now, let me preface this first in that this is a lovely home, albeit under 1300sf in a middle class neighborhood. For the new buyer, their first year taxes would be almost $3200 and this is with the Homestead Exemption still in place.
You also need to be wary, because according to the property appraiser’s website, the Assessed Value of this home with the SOH went up 15%. What happened to the 3%? Most people wouldn’t even know. They don’t check their tax bills. It is generally escrowed in with your mortgage payments.
Let’s take a couple of steps back for a moment. Let’s say that the property tax on our primary residence is eliminated. What do you think will happen a few years down the road when they realize that there is not enough revenue coming in from the sales tax? I can tell you what I think - lo and behold, we will find ourselves with another property tax. What do you think will stop the legislature in doing that? By that time, we should have another administration in office and the blame will be put on them. Think about it!!
Additionally, there is another aspect to consider. With the elimination of a property tax, there would be a loss of jobs in that there would be less need for the local property appraisers and tax collectors. Now the monies would be going directly to the state and then funneled down to the local counties & municipalities. Granted, I’m sure there is a lot of ‘fat’ at the lower levels of government as there are at the upper levels. Maybe, this might be good in that they would have to trim a lot of that since the monies would now be coming from elsewhere. And maybe there would have to be more accountability. Only time will tell on this issue.
So, this is not an easy fix. But it also cannot be a quick fix. In doing so you will only be replacing one flawed system with another. What purpose does that serve, except for someone in power saying that they did something? Well, whoop de doo! If doing so leaves us in a similar or worse situation down the road, have you really helped anyone? Or are you really only helping your cronies? Beware, there are many lobbyists & PR people out there that will try to sell us a bill of goods. Just be wary! Be very, very wary as Elmer Fudd might say.
Until next time – Marc It Sold!
In 1992 in Florida, a property tax break measure entitled, “Save Our Homes,” was passed. What this does is take the Tax Assessed Value of your home at the time of purchase and limit this from being increased more than 3% per year for the current owner until the home is sold. The intention of this was to be of assistance mainly to the elderly from being taxed out of their homes. Unfortunately, the wealthy have received a proportionately greater property tax benefits than those intended. Read the complete article at http://www.orlandosentinel.com/orl-sohday206oct30,0,6678504.story
Until Next Time - MARC IT SOLD!
Unbelievable! After all of these months of wrangling, town hall meetings, etc, this is the best that they could come up with. The major points of the proposed property tax amendment, which the citizens of Florida will vote on 1/29/08 are as follows: