Property Tax Breaks, Possible Service Cuts At Center Of Constitutional Amendment Debate
September 26, 2012 at 5:05 pm
As Florida continues to recover from a sluggish housing market, voters will decide in November whether to amend the state Constitution to extend property tax breaks to thousands of homeowners.
Of the 11 proposed Constitutional amendments, one — Amendment 4 — would give first-time buyers, owners of rental properties and part-time residents a tax break of roughly half the market value of their home.
“The changes in the market have provided [an] opportunity for me to step in there to buy the house that I always wanted but could never afford in the past,” said Dennis MacDonald, a first-time home buyer and Royal Palm Beach resident.
Other amendments would give seniors and veterans tax breaks.
Critics said — together — the amendments would cut the taxes local governments collect.
“If you’re not the person getting the benefit — the lower value — you’re the person having to pay for it by virtue of a higher tax rate,” said Gary Nikolits, Palm Beach County Property Appraiser. “That’s exactly how exemptions work … it transfers the benefits from one person into a cost for somebody else.”
Nikolits has not taken a position on the amendments but said some local governments would have to cut services or raise taxes to absorb the impact of the property tax breaks.
Palm Beach County would lose about $150 million in property taxes over four years, according to one estimate.
“First-time home buyers are so important to our market because they’re the ones that really need to be out there buying these distressed properties,” said Dionna Hall, a senior vice president at the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches.
Hall, who supports Amendment 4, said the tax breaks would raise the values of homes across Florida.
Florida TaxWatch, a non-partisan taxpayer research institute, said amendments such as Amendment 4 would create nineteen thousand jobs and help Floridians keep billions of dollars of income.
2013 The E.W. Scripps Co.
Instead of having to filter through both sides of the spectrum slanted ads, it would be nice if a news organization took time out of their schedule to spell out to the average viewer what voting yes and no on each amendment actually means and could cost.
You can find the costs of the property tax proposals on the Florida Dept. of State website…go to “Track Bills” and click on “Analysis” ( which is the legislature’s staff analysis).
Let’s remember there is No Such Thing as a Free Lunch. Lost revenue to local governments and school districts, as the case may be, will result in either a decline in services with the attendant LOSS of jobs or higher tax rates for those not in the specific preferred category who will therefore be required to pay More in property taxes.
Can your local government or school district cut more?
I would like to see where Florida Tax watch came up with these numbers. They look nothing like the numbers on the Fl. Dept of State website.
If the legislature wants to confer payments to veterans and first responders or the spouses of same let them cut checks from state revenues. Why should these payments be restricted to homesteaders in some cases, or only homeowners? That was not the point of the legislation. Leave local governments and school districts, in some cases,
out of it .
Ok I will assist here. This info comes from the Dept. of State website
Estimated Fiscal Impact:
Amendment 2. School tax impact Loss of revenue 2013-14 (1.1million) rising to a recurring loss of (3.6 million) in 2015 and beyond. Non school, local govt. impact loss of revenue (1.3 million) rising to a recurring loss of (4.0 million) in 2015 and beyond.
Amendment 4. There are three sections to this amendment each with different impacts. In some cases school districts are exempt from the reduction. Part 1. is estimated to have a loss in revenue to non school local governments of (118.1 million) in 2013 rising to a loss of (406.5 million) in 2015. Part 2. would result in an additional loss to non school local government revenue of (38.5million) in 2013 with a recurring negative impact of (159.3 million) thereafter(no date specified). Part 3. will effect both non school government and school districts. The non school local government impact will be a loss in revenue of (10.3 million ) in 2013 with a recurring impact of a loss of (32.5 million) thereafter (no date specified). School districts will see a loss of revenue of (6.2 million) in 2013 and a loss of (17.7 million) thereafter.
Amendment 9. Estimated loss of revenue to non school local governments is $300,000 and revenue loss to school districts is $300,000 beginning in 2013.
Amendment No 10 Tangible property tax exemption (business related) Would have a negative impact on non school local government revenue of 20.1 million beginning in 2013.
All of these estimates are based on assumptions and do not assume that the impacted local governments would change their millage rates.
One more
Amendment 11. This is an enabling amendment, which means the local government has to actually pass a local law to give the additional tax break. Only those counties and/or municipalities which already offer the current low income senior exemption…there are 58 counties and over 200 municipalities which do so (according to Fl. Dept. of Revenue) can enact this additional exemption. So the impact is estimated to be a loss of 9.1 million to local governments rising to 9.4 million in 2015. This assumes all govts. who can, enact the additional exemption.
Mr. Sanz should do his homework.
I read the Florida TaxWatch report to see how such positive results could be achieved. Sure enough on Page 13 the following two statements appeared. ” For the economic impact analysis, it is assumed that local government revenues will remain unaffected. Essentially, this analysis assumes a net-zero fiscal impact for local government revenues.”
That is called having the cake and eating it too.
Here we are cutting property tax revenues to local govt. by, over a billion over a few years time, and there is NO impact. There is either going to be cuts with the attendant multiplier downward effects on the local economy as the cuts work thru the system OR those not getting the breaks will be paying more in property taxes.
I am a new Florida resident and was somewhat taken aback at the number of amendments on the 2013 sample ballot for Collier County. Is there some resource that explains the pros and cons of each amendment? Has the Naples News editorial staff taken a position on any of these amendments? I see that some of the comments above do question who and how are the incentives given in some of these amendments will be paid. What is the total (possible and expected) dollars in estimated tax revenues from each of these amendments?