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No vote to be taken in the legislative session that ends Friday. Special session scheduled for June 5-15.

Special legislative session called for June 5 to deal with property tax reform

By Mark Hollis and Linda Kleindienst
Sun-Sentinel.com
Posted May 2 2007, 12:29 PM EDT


TALLAHASSEE – Florida legislative leaders announced Wednesday morning that they failed to reach agreement on a property tax-cut plan and will meet in special session for 10 days in June to consider the issues and pass a new state constitutional amendment.

``We're obviously disappointed, but we have come a long way,'' said Senate President Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, when making the announcement to senators. ``We all agree that people need relief.''


The special session will be held June 5 to June 15, lawmakers said.

Pruitt and House Speaker Marco Rubio, R-West Miami, said the tax-cut and tax-reform issues that they have been haggling over during the regular legislative session, which ends Friday, are too important to cram into the final three days of meetings.

``We would not call dates (for a special session)...unless we were confident that we would come up with something that would not just pass but work,'' Rubio said making the announcement to Florida House members. ``But drafting something to go on the ballot (can't be rushed).''

Rubio and other House Republican leaders have steadfastly argued for a controversial revamping of the state's tax structure, including an elimination of all property taxes in exchange for an increase in the state's sales tax. When that plan was blocked this session by senators and Gov. Charlie Crist, Rubio revamped his strategy and said he would be willing to accept alternatives so long as they led to sharp cuts in property taxes. But the cuts touted by the House have been too deep for senators to accept.

Rubio is confident that the property tax issues will get resolved in special session, and that trying to craft a constitutional revision dealing with property taxes in three days would likely have produced an error-filled package.

``There is no glitch bill for the constitution,'' Rubio said. ``Even if we wanted to, it would be impossible to craft a constitutional amendment to reflect the progress that we have made (in recent days' negotiations between the House and Senate).''

Failing to get the issues settled hastily, Rubio added, would have been troubling and lawmakers would have faced ``a summer of hearing about it and getting criticized for it.''