Florida Property Tax Amendment
September 26, 2007 12:34 pmFiled in Real Estate
On Monday, a Leon County Circuit Court Judge ruled to remove the Property Tax Relief measure of the January 29th ballot due to the "misleading and confusing" language. Here’s what it says:
Proposing amendments to the State
Constitution to increase the homestead exemption from $25,000 to 75
percent of the just value of the property up to $200,000 and 15 percent
of the just value of the property above $200,000 up to $500,000, to
subject the $500,000 threshold to annual adjustments based on the
percentage change in per capita personal income, to authorize an
increase in the $500,000 threshold amount by a two-thirds vote of the
Legislature, and to specify minimum homestead exemption amounts of
$50,000 for everyone except low-income seniors and $100,000 for
low-income seniors; to provide for transitional assessments of
homestead property under the increased homestead exemption that include
preserving application of Save-Our-Homes provisions until an
irrevocable election is made; to revise Save-Our-Homes provisions to
conform to provisions providing for the increased homestead exemption
and transitional assessments of homestead property; to require the
Legislature to limit the authority of counties, municipalities, and
special districts to increase ad valorem taxes; to authorize an
exemption from ad valorem taxes of no less than $25,000 of assessed
value of tangible personal property; to provide for assessing
rent-restricted affordable housing property and waterfront property
used for commercial fishing, commercial water-dependent activities, and
public access at less than just value; and to schedule the amendments
to take effect upon approval by the voters and operate retroactively to
January 1, 2008, if approved in a special election held on January 29,
2008, or shall take effect January 1, 2009, if approved in the general
election held in November of 2008.
After reading this, are you sure you know what you’re voting for or against? More often than not, Floridians vote yes on these constitutional amendments either due to great advertising on the part of the organizations putting them on the ballot or because of complacency (Pregnant Pigs example - does this belong in our constitution?).
As a matter of curiosity, I reviewed the results of the voting for all constitutional
amendments in each of the general elections dating back to 1994 (earliest online election results from the Florida Department of State). Of the 50 proposed amendments, 46 passed. One of the ones that failed was the 1994 "Limited Casinos" amendment heavily fought by the Indian Tribes in South Florida - gaming is once again a hot topic in Florida. Also failing was the 1996 "Sugar Tax" amendment which was topic of mass television advertisements that year - narrowly defeated by the way, 50.2% to 49.8%. In fact, during the 2006 General Election, voters passed all proposed constitutional amendments including the one that would make it more difficult to put new amendments on the ballot.
Let’s have some clear language that ordinary voters understand. We want lower taxes - so does that mean voting for or against this amendment?
