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Statement By Gov. Charlie Crist: The Largest Tax Cut In Florida History
“I congratulate Senate President Ken Pruitt and House Speaker Marco Rubio and the many other legislators who have worked tirelessly to build consensus among the members of the Legislature and deliver the largest tax cut in Florida history. I specifically want to commend Senators Daniel Webster, Steve Geller and Mike Haridopolos and Representatives Dean Cannon and Dan Gelber for their good work. Because everyone worked together, property taxes will drop like a rock.
“This is the people’s tax cut and the power to further cut taxes is now in their hands. On January 29, the people will have the power to cut their taxes in a historic way.
“It is clear that without property insurance and property tax reform, Florida has been becoming unaffordable. I join Floridians across our state in expressing gratitude to the Florida Legislature for listening to the people’s needs. By reining in these high costs, the people of Florida who have been hesitant to become first-time home buyers will once again be able to live the American dream of home ownership. Likewise, people who have been reluctant to move to a home better suited to their needs will once again have the freedom to follow their dreams.
“Thanks to the good work of the Legislature, lower property taxes will ignite the real estate market, and Florida’s economy will continue to boom. By lowering property insurance rates and cutting property taxes, we will create a better bottom line for Floridians, and for Florida.”
- from Governor's office.
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‘YES ON 1’ Launches Web Site About Property Taxes
Lower property taxes for Floridians is the goal. http://www.yeson1florida.com/
TALLAHASSEE . - Advocates of the "Yes on 1 – Save our Homes NOW" group today unveiled YesOn1Florida.com, its newest tool to help educate homeowners about the “Super Homestead Exemption” and lowering their property taxes.
"I encourage Floridians to visit YesOn1Florida.com to help educate themselves and others on how to lower their property taxes," said Co-Chair Senator Mike Fasano. "It is important for citizens to voice their opinions and make a knowledgeable decision on this amendment."
The new site provides Floridians with resources to make an informed decision on the amendment and voting 'Yes on 1'. It features recent news on the issue and provides background information on the amendment. YesOn1Florida.com also includes a section where citizens can voice their support of 'Yes on 1', where the homepage’s counter displays the number of citizens who endorse the amendment. The site also allows citizens to sign up for an e-Newsletter which will send supporters new information as the Election Day approaches.
- from ‘Yes on 1 – Save our Homes NOW’
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Florida Insider Poll: Florida Voters Approve Of Property Tax Cuts
There’s good news here for the Republican lawmakers and governor that championed tax cuts.
By Florida Insider
Our latest poll included questions about tax cuts versus cuts in government services, and also about Sen. Mel Martínez’s low approval ratings. We asked:
Question: Do you approve or disapprove of the recently passed property tax cuts, even if they create budget shortfalls that will require reductions in government services?
Approve (50%)
Disapprove (32%)
No opinion (18%)
The poll was conducted for Florida Insider by InsiderAdvantage on July 21 and 22. It was conducted among 400 Florida voters, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5%. The data have been weighted for age, race, gender and partisan affiliation.
The customary partisan split among Florida voters largely vanishes when it comes to money staying in their pockets vs. going into those of government coffers. “Government services” is, of course, an umbrella term to cover a broad subject. But we don’t yet know which services, if any, may get the knife soon, or next year if the tax-cut constitutional amendment passes in January.
There’s good news here for the Republican lawmakers and governor that championed tax cuts. Voters are behind them in sentiment, even after doomsday scenarios about cuts in government services coming from Democrats and local government officials.
More critically, the poll at least vaguely suggests that voters may be of a mood to give the January constitutional amendment vote the 60% that’s required for it to pass. The roughly one in five poll respondents who had no opinion may not bother to vote, if passed voting patterns are an indication. If the remaining four out of five voters are re-tabulated based on 100%, those wanting tax cuts badly enough to forfeit government services for them goes over the top of 60% with percentage points to spare.
Remember, though, that the amendment vote is on the same ballot as the presidential primaries votes. That likely means voters indifferent to the tax vote but interested in the presidential vote will show up at the polls. Likely many of them will cast votes on the tax vote just because it’s on the ballot.
They may become the swing vote that decides whether the constitutional amendment passes. And they will likely be persuaded along partisan lines. This angle supports what we’ve been saying all along – that the Republican Party needs to make the tax amendment a partisan vote, because the Democrats likely will do so against it.
This is all speculation. But that’s all political strategists can do right now with this unprecedented situation – speculate.
Mel Martínez approval rating
On June 29 we published a poll that showed Florida junior US Sen. Mel Martínez (R) with a dismal approval rating of 23% among Florida voters. Importantly, we conducted that poll in the middle of the fight in Congress over the compromise immigration reform bill on which Martinez played point man.
We polled Martinez’s popularity then not to purposely catch him with his political pants down at a vulnerable time for him, but to illustrate the impact of the wildly unpopular immigration bill on anyone who put their political weight behind it. The point was made.
To be fair to Martínez – whom we’ve actually praised for his courageous stand on immigration – we’ve decided to poll his approval ratings again, now that the immigration storm has subsided at least a little.
Sure enough, Martinez’s standing with Florida voters is slowly beginning to heal.
Question: Do you approve or disapprove of the job that Sen. Mel Martínez is doing as a United States senator?
Approve (30%)
Disapprove (40%)
No opinion (30%)
This is still abysmal stuff for Martinez. His highly publicized linkage to President George W. Bush and the national Republican Party – of which he is chair – is almost surely the reason. Because Martinez isn’t up for reelection until 2010, he has plenty of time to put these guilty associations behind him. Bush will be long gone by then, and the partisan cycle likely will have turned at least once. Still in all, Martinez has much work to do to get Floridians on his side.
Look for Martinez' approval ratings to keep inching up into the 30 percentiles as the immigration debate further recedes. Getting above that before the presidential election next year may be tough, however.
Florida Insider is published by the Internet News Agency, http://www.flinsider.com/
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“Reduce Taxes Now!”
Central Florida residents call for tax cuts as Gov. Crist outlines his property tax reform plan that would reduce taxes this year.
ORLANDO – “I just want your property taxes down,” Gov. Charlie Crist, left, told Central Florida residents attending a town hall meeting he hosted here Wednesday evening.
“We are going to cut your taxes. It is going to happen and happen soon,” Crist said as he answered questions from residents for about 75 minutes at Valencia Community College as he stood next to a sign that said “Reduce Taxes Now!”
“I think our local government over spends,” Richard Barrington of Orlando told the governor. “Somehow we must control their spending.”
“Our idea is to put a cap on the spending” of local governments, Crist responded, “to make sure spending discipline exists.”
Immediately rolling back local government revenue caps to 2003 levels, with an allowance for inflation and growth, is one part of Crist’s proposed four-part plan to cut property taxes.
Officially announced on Thursday, Crist’s plan cuts taxes for homeowners by an estimated 12 percent this year and about 21.5 percent in 2008.
The other three components of the plan require voters to pass a constitutional amendment, phasing in additional savings for property owners by 2008. They include: doubling the homestead exemption to $50,000, making the homestead exemption portable statewide and exempting from tax the first $25,000 of businesses’ tangible personal property. By 2011, this tax exemption would save businesses about $800 million while first-time home buyers would receive an 11.9 percent savings since the Save Our Homes cap applies only to existing homeowners.
Both the House and Senate have passed property tax reduction bills. Differences between the two bills are being discussed by a conference committee. Both include rolling back local government revenues, which can be accomplished by legislation.
The legislative session is scheduled to end May 4.
- FronPageFlorida.com report
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Opinion
Florida’s Tax Revolt
Gov. Charlie Crist recently signed a $32 billion property tax relief plan.
Wall Street Journal Editorial
NEW YORK -- The high voltage political issue in much of America these days is soaring property tax bills. And nowhere are homeowners feeling a bigger financial squeeze than in Florida, where property levies are reaching New Jersey levels. So it is big news that Governor Charlie Crist recently signed a $32 billion property tax relief plan -- the biggest tax cut in Florida history, and reminiscent of California's famous Proposition 13 tax cut initiative 29 years ago.
Florida family incomes have risen by a healthy 37% since 2001, but average property tax bills have climbed by 83%. In some communities, such as Boynton Beach, average property tax bills have tripled in seven years. Politicians tell of town hall meetings where angry constituents announce they are literally being taxed out of their homes. United Van Lines reports that, for the first time in many years, more American homeowners packed up and left Florida than arrived in 2006. The inflation in property tax bills is one reason. A recent Zogby poll found that in south Florida more than half of homeowners said they would consider leaving the state.
A special problem in Florida is property tax inequity. Some homeowners are grandfathered in to large homestead exemptions, so they pay far less tax than new homeowners with a similar house across the street. This creates an inefficient lock-in effect in which some families can't get a good price for their home because any new owners could instantly face a tripling or more of the property tax bill. Young people face a rapid property tax escalator in part because of the tax exemptions of longtime owners.
The public is angry enough that the Florida House passed a bill that would have abolished property taxes and replaced the revenue with spending caps on localities and a somewhat higher sales tax. The bill failed in the Senate. Both houses easily passed an immediate 10% property tax rollback, and the majority Republicans muscled through a sweeping reform that will cut average property taxes by $1,000 and then cap annual growth at 3%.
The catch is that this must be approved by 60% of the voters in a January 2008 ballot referendum. And already the liberal interests that feast on local spending -- government employee unions, contractors and local politicians -- are predicting Armageddon for schools and city services if the tax cuts are enacted. House Speaker Marco Rubio, who has led the charge for property tax relief, says local governments have already spent $24 million of taxpayer money to lobby against the initiative.
With many municipal budgets having doubled in size over the past eight years, many Floridians are unimpressed with these sudden exclamations of empty city wallets. Taxpayer groups point to numerous examples of flush spending by cities and counties in recent years, including $32 million for a new municipal golf course in Palm Beach -- a county that already has 160 courses.
Far from being over, the property tax fight in Florida is just heating up. That's also true in at least a dozen other states, including Indiana, Illinois, New Jersey and Nevada, where a decade of property tax bill creep and now falling property values are biting family finances. Property tax assessments always fall more slowly than values do in a declining market.
The American dream of homeownership is under assault from the local tax collector. This may be the real source of middle-class economic anxiety -- and don't be surprised if it becomes one of the sleeper political issues of 2008.
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