[floridasandy]

please vote in the poll. thank you.

[macguy]

Originally Posted by floridasandy

please vote in the poll. thank you.

The paper in Fort Lauderdale did one and it was about 75% for, the last time I looked at it. It will pass because it is written appeal to voters.

[firemed]

I have to pay taxes in any case so it's just not a big deal for me. I want to see how this pans out in the long run.

[somwhathip]

Hi, I am from Connecticut and extremely frustrated about our property tax system.

Everyone holds up the model of FL's homestead act, which caps inceases in the assessed value at 3% per year, for those who live in FL full time. My understanding is that the mill rate can increase in any amount. Is this a workable system - or is flawed as well?

Thanks to an extremely robust housing market property values have gone up 50% or more in some desirable locations near the water in the last 5-6 years. Although the market is softer now, this generally means property taxes go up accordingly.

thanks

[Songbird42]

With the way this state is run, I don't trust anyone in government anymore, I'm afraid that if it passes, its going to come back and bite us all in the a**.
I could be wrong, but hey, I just got my property tax bill and it went down
and by next year my apprasial value due to the econonic crunch will probably go down to, so lower taxes again.

With the 50,000 exemption given to everyone those of us with homes valued under $100,000 we'll pay little or nothing, and where is the money going to come from to run each county, they have to make it up somewhere, I just have a bad feeling on this and I'm going with my gut feeling.

[tallrick]

I am voting for it, so as soon as I get good enough and if it passes, I can challenge its constitutionality.

[firemed]

Originally Posted by tallrick

I am voting for it, so as soon as I get good enough and if it passes, I can challenge its constitutionality.

It's like HOI its not a cut if you pay the same or more. Look at your auto ins. bill when you get it, you will see a brand new fee added in.

[triton1]

Originally Posted by floridasandy

please vote in the poll. thank you.

In your opinion, what exactly is this property tax bill supposed to do?

[bale002]

Originally Posted by triton1

In your opinion, what exactly is this property tax bill supposed to do?

For some opinions, see //www.city-data.com/forum/flori...rtability.html

For the record:

Unlike the previous proposal, the SOH provision will not be phased out.

The exemption will be increased from $25,000 to $50,000, but this excludes the proportion of taxes allocated to schools, so the actual exemption is increased to around $40,000. A meaningless figure in the more expensive regions of Florida.

Rises in assessed values on non-homesteaded properties (businesses and second houses) will be capped to 10% annually.

Businesses will enjoy a $25k exemption on so-called tangible personal property.

SOH owners who sell their houses and buy a more expensive one will be able to transfer up to $500k of homesteaded value (portability).

SOH owners who sell their houses and buy a less expensive one will be able to transfer a proportion of their homesteaded value.

Overall, the increase in the exemption in the SOH value is virtually meaningless. A 10% cap on business and second-home assessments also has little meaning.

The only thing meaningful about this proposal is portability, and for the most part on the way up, to a lesser extent on the way down.

My interpretation is that this proposal for the most part favors the wealthy who want to move to a bigger, more expensive house, at the expense of the school system (which mostly serves the relatively poor).

While the tangible property tax exemption will help businesses a little, overall this proposal will do even less to help boost the Florida economy, except perhaps in an indirect way.

Another disappointing thing about this proposal is that it does not address local government spending.

The underlying problem with the credit/real estate bubble, runaway inflation in other areas of the economy, and even the property tax issue in Florida is the spread of the mania in this country to spend more than is produced, a miserable principle on which to run an economy (into the ground). But people are too blinded by their own excess materialism to figure it out.

Anyway, this proposal, if it passes, will have no or little impact on the housing market. It obviously benefits current homesteaders who may want to trade up, but by itself this will hardly dent the huge current inventory.

For potential new entrants into the housing market - whether as homeowners or homedebtors - at least SOH is not being phased out, but voting yes or no will have no bearing on that. The $25k increase in the exemption is too small to be taken seriously.

I checked the no option on the poll choices for constitutional reasons. Not because SOH may be or may not be unfair and it may or not be challenged on constitutional grounds, but because a constitution should be a document based on solid principles that stand the test of time, and it should not be amended in reaction to the trend of the day and the whims of a population - both ruling classes and subjects who still happen to have voting rights - that spends more than it produces, a miserable principle on which to base a constitution, and, as several people have mentioned, both inside and outside this forum, the intention of many is that this be only a first step.

Voting yes, in my view, sends the signal that tinkering with the constitution on whimsical grounds is admissible, thus rendering the entire system a joke, susceptible to the whims of the materially-selfish blind leading the materially-selfish blind in an economic system plagued by too many significant contradictions where, because of a suicidal monetary policy, the means of exchange, store of value, and unit of account - in other words, the dollar - are rendered meaningless as a tool for measuring production and expenses, for planning sensibly for the future, certainly not a good augur.

Good luck!