For those of you not yet aware, Amendment 5 will be appearing on the November 4th ballot here in Florida. The amendment will allow voters to decide whether or not they will decrease their real estate taxes (by as much as 25%) by replacing “state required school property taxes with other state revenues.”
Once again, Lee County Property Appraiser Ken Wilkinson (Father of Save Our Homes), helped the committee that developed the new amendment and they believe its passage will “remove the unfunded mandate of required local effort from the backs of Florida taxpayers.”
The bottom line for the committee’s backing of the new amendment is that the Florida Constitution requires the state to provide funding for education and there are other ways besides “unfunded mandates in the form of required local effort” to accomplish that task. Options for the Legislature include repealing state sales tax exemptions, increasing the sales tax rate by 1%, and spending reductions. According to Wilkinson, “passing Amendment 5 will eliminate 25% from Florida property owners’ tax bills by 2010.”
The Amendment will require 60% of voters approval in order to be adopted and as expected, battle lines are already being drawn. In fact, a coalition of school associations and business has already filed a lawsuit trying to get the amendment removed form the ballot. However, proponents of the amendment believe it will withstand all such challenges.
It appears that by approving Amendment 5, Florida voters can take the next big step towards substantial tax reform and property tax relief. We concur with this assessment and encourage everyone to become involved in the effort to help reverse the trend of ever rising property tax increases within our state.
Note: The Florida Association of Realtors has contributed $1 Million towards helping get this amendment passed and has opened a website - www.giveme5florida.com for residents to obtain more infomation or to make a donation to help them in their efforts.
Gulf Coast Associates, Realtors specializes in upscale Florida real estate in and around Bonita Springs and Naples. Call us today at 888-617-3674
Tags: Florida, legislature, taxes
3 users commented in " Florida Real Estate Tax Reform - Round Two "
Follow-up RSS Comments Feed or Leave a TrackbackGreat Blog post. I am going to bookmark and read more often. I love the Blog template too.
Voting in Florida? Just kidding.
“repealing state sales tax exemptions, increasing the sales tax rate by 1%, and spending reductions.”
Really?
Need some tax relief these days.
Imagine the legislature actually having to do its job. That would “really” be something.
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