As far as I can tell, the problem with property taxes in Florida wasn’t that they were too high, particularly not when you look at the overall tax burden in Florida, which is on the low end of the tax spectrum in the U.S. The problem was an inequality in the system that had homeowners with basically the same home in the same neighborhood paying drastically different property tax rates and that the recent increase in property values drove up taxes on those who were already paying the comparatively high rates. So, a good solution to the problem would’ve involved equalizing the rates without socking anybody with huge increases and including a portability provision that would allow people to buy and sell their home without the huge increases that were making some homes impossible to sell. That still would’ve left out new home buyers, so a separate solution would’ve been needed there. Tie that into the high and rising cost of property insurance and things were even worse. Cutting taxes does nothing to help with the insurance problem, either, so the law passed by the legislature, with bipartisan support, isn’t really going to solve a whole lot and looks like it will lead to new problems.
Apparently, the plan will lead to an average savings of $174, but does nothing to solve the inequality, new home buyer or property insurance problems. The $174 is basically meaningless over time and is little more than a buyoff of voters to get them to think the legislature has done something about the problem and maybe to intice them into voting for the Save Our Homes amendment amendment in January. That amendment, if passed, would help some people and, theoretically, would eventually phase out Save Our Homes, but:
Buttressed against these benefits are the exemptions’ potential impact on school funding and the comparatively small exemptions for businesses and nonhomesteaded property owners.
Florida already has amongst the worst school systems in the United States and we’re passing a plan that might cut funding for schools? That’s just plain stupid. We also have an economy that is largely based on growth, tourism and tourist dollars for revenue and we do little to help out the businesses (particularly small businesses) who need the help? The argue by some “that it could’ve been worse” is a terrible argument. It also could’ve (and should’ve) been better.
Keep in mind that the property tax cuts don’t even mean that one will pay less. In order to prevent cuts to services, fees will increase. And when that can’t cover the property tax cuts, services will be cut. When services are cut, the cost will be made up out of pocket. How many taxpayers can pay for government services with their own money? Most can’t, so the quality of life will decline for many. And since insurance rates can, and probably will, continue to rise, many will pay more on that front. Add in increased fuel costs, unlikely to decline in the long run, and I’m not sure if more than a handful of people are even saving money with this plan.
The biggest part of the problem with this plan, though, is that it is an attack on local governments and what they can do. Sure, there are some local governments that could use some cutting and improvements in efficiency and effectiveness, but that type of thing isn’t achieved by across-the-board cuts, it’s achieved by actually looking at specific problems and coming up with plans to fix those problems. It certainly doesn’t come from suggestions like those from some who suggest that we should cut pensions for police and fire fighters, that they shouldn’t have generous pensions, despite the fact that they risk their lives to make sure that we don’t lose ours. That’s nonsense. It is true, though, that legislators could lose their lavish pensions or take big cuts in them. This would save money and certainly wouldn’t hurt too many legislators. Seriously, when was the last time Florida produced a retired politician who was poor?
And for most politicians, there’s nothing more important than winning the next election – and staying in the pension system themselves.
That’s right. Florida’s “citizen” lawmakers receive pension benefits, making them part of the system they’re supposed to oversee.
Dominic Calabro of Florida TaxWatch says it gets worse. It’s common in Florida, he says, for powerful elected officials to land a good government job a few years before retirement as a perk to boost their pension. Retirement pay is based on the last few years of salary, so it’s easy to leverage years of part-time work and a brief $100,000 salary into a $70,000 annual pension for life, plus cost-of-living increases.
It would cost a private citizen $2.3 million to buy an annuity that delivers such a high income in retirement.
“It changes the nature of the public commitment,” Calabro says. “They want to get re-elected at any cost, looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.”
Calabro calls the practice a taxpayer scam. He’s right.
Taxpayers shouldn’t have to buy “public servants” a golden parachute.
That part, at least, I agree with. I don’t agree with cuts to services though, which could be significant. I’m disappointed that Dave Aronberg said that the law that was passed wasn’t too steep as far as cuts. If it were taken alone, it wouldn’t be horrible for some (it might for others), but it’s clear that if that cut is added to the constitutional amendment that currently sits at 69% approval rating, things could get much worse. And since many don’t think these cuts go far enough, who is to say things won’t get even worse after that. Possible cuts:
City and county leaders, responding to the state Legislature’s property tax cuts, foresee far less revenue available for things like parks, fire stations, libraries and bus service.
And that’s just the initial property tax rollback. If voters approve a referendum in January creating a new “super homestead exemption, ” then stay tuned for another round of deeper cuts next year.
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“The new reality is less revenues to work with, not just this year but in future years, ” said Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio.
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And the county’s bus agency, Hillsborough Area Regional Transit, will lose $5.3- to $6-million out of its overall $50-million budget.
Here are places they’re looking to squeeze the budget:
HART: It could eliminate Sunday bus service, scale back Saturday service, and cancel some lesser-used routes.
City of Tampa: At the mayor’s direction, departments had already proposed cuts. With the final plan in, finance director Bonnie Wise figures the city will need to slash another $6-million.
Already, the police department has trimmed more than $7-million. The fire department cut nearly $2.7-million but hopes to make that back by charging drivers’ insurance companies for services provided at car accidents.
Iorio said police and fire service will be last in line for more cuts. But parks and recreation may get hit again. The department already plans to cut about $1-million by such steps as closing swimming pools in the winter and eliminating summer reading teachers and swimming instructors.
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Hillsborough County: Administrators will recommend a slew of cuts to county commissioners next month.
The county will likely postpone building 10 fire stations and the expansion or construction of seven new library branches. It could delay as many as two dozen park projects and dramatically slash staffing at existing ones, according to an analysis by the county staff.
The county could cut about 200 jobs.
If Florida voters approve the new homestead exemption in January, the next wave of cuts will bite deeper, said county budget director Eric Johnson.
“We’re already looking at a significant loss of the revenue that accounts for our day-to-day services, ” he said. “It’s even more staggering in terms of the implications if we lose another $100-million next year.”
About $2.3 million of St. Augustine Beach’s $6 million general fund comes from property tax revenue.
The city wouldn’t be able to increase the revenue for next year’s budget, plus it would have to cut another 9 percent. That’s about a $205,000 reduction from this year’s property tax revenue.
City Manager Max Royle said the city will have to consider making up the difference with new revenue sources, such as a garbage or stormwater runoff fee, rather than cutting services to its 6,000 residents.
In St. Augustine, about $10 million in property tax revenue goes into the city’s $25 million general fund budget. Chief Administrative Officer Tim Burchfield said officials still are calculating the initial impact of the property tax legislation.
Officials are considering cutting some services initiated during the past five years, including police department bike patrol and neighborhood councils, Burchfield said, adding that city positions may be frozen or eliminated. The city has about 13,500 residents.
“Residents are going to feel it; there’s no other way around it,” he said.
Visitors and residents in Jacksonville Beach might feel the impact in reduced special events, City Manager George Forbes said.
Jacksonville Beach’s $18.7 million general fund budget includes about $7.5 million from property tax revenue. Forbes said he estimated the city, which has about 22,000 residents, would get about $1 million less in property tax revenue than originally expected next year.
Neptune Beach City Manager Jim Jarboe said he thinks the initial impact to his city will be about $200,000 in reduced property tax revenue. Almost half of the city’s $4 million general fund comes from property tax revenue, he said.
Jarboe said he doesn’t think the city will have to cut police officers, but he said it will look at cutting some services to its 7,300 residents and may not be able to give money to non-profit community groups.
Preliminary plans called for cutting $10 million of the $11.4 million in Jacksonville’s public service grants. The Times-Union asked representatives from several agencies to talk about the funding issues.
First Coast African American Chamber of Commerce
Program: Minority business outreach and workforce development programs
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How would losing city money affect your agency?
It would devastate us. We would find it very difficult to continue the program services without that funding. These funds are direct-service programs. For example, one-on-one counseling and group counseling sessions/workshops. They are for the disadvantaged, small businesses, mostly black. The workforce program finds unskilled individuals jobs and training opportunities so they can develop skills for the future.
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Alzheimer’s Association
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How would losing city money affect your agency?
It is devastating. There is no other organization dedicated to providing services for people affected by Alzheimer’s disease, patients and loved ones. This grant allowed us to focus about 40 percent on minorities in Duval County. The loss of this grant will mean we won’t be able to provide a lot of the caregiver programs we provided, which were free of charge. We also paid for the “Safe Return” ID bracelet program, which is a wanderer’s ID program, because 6 out of 10 patients tend to wander, and we won’t have the funds to provide the ID. We get calls from families who cannot afford to pay for that, and losing these funds will force us to stop providing the free ID.
What are your other funding options?
[Also] donor supported and donor support is down at this time. Also receive state funding, which has also been drastically cut.
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Compassionate Families
Program: Grief recovery and support services to families of homicide victims
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How would losing city money affect your agency?
The city money serves as a substantial portion of our required 25 percent match. In other words, the $18,099 ends up being close to representing $72,500 after the match. We wouldn’t lose the $18,099, we would lose the match, too. It’s the coming grant year that will be affected, which is $30,000 which represents $120,000 after the match. That is 40 percent of the total annual budget.
What are your other funding options?
The bulk of the funding is from a federal grant from the Florida Attorney General’s Office from [money] … collected from offenders, not taxpayer dollars.
Florida State University President T.K. Wetherell didn’t try to hide his pessimism Friday as he talked about freezing enrollment, tightening admission criteria, cutting hours for labs and libraries and raising some student fees.
The culprits, Wetherell said, are threefold: years of inadequate funding from the state to pay for enrollment growth; Gov. Charlie Crist’s recent veto of a 5-percent tuition increase at state universities; and the unseen effects of the Legislature’s decision Thursday to cut property taxes.
“Something’s gotta give, guys. It’s just that simple,” Wetherell said, standing in front of a large horizontal banner that bore the same message.
In Miami-Dade, where county budget experts had pegged the expected loss of revenue at $376 million, leaders said that cuts would start at the top, in executive offices — but not end there. Look for reduced parks programs, cuts in fire-rescue programs, and even slower autopsies, said County Manager George Burgess.
In Broward, where the immediate cuts total about $113 million, ”People keep hearing the governor and others say public safety will not be affected,” County Commissioner Kristin Jacobs said. “It’s absolutely false.”
An across-the-board cut of $113 million could mean slashing more than $55 million from corrections, law enforcement, fire rescue and other sheriff’s office programs. The sheriff’s budget accounts for slightly more than half the county’s budget, Jacobs said.
It’s by no means clear whether Sheriff Ken Jenne, who earlier proposed a $739 million budget — a 3.7 percent increase — would accept such a cut. He can appeal the commissioners’ budget decisions to the Cabinet.
In Miami-Dade, Burgess said initial trims to the offices of the mayor, manager and County Commission, and to administrative departments such as budget, finance, technology and audit, won’t ”come close” to making up for the 9 percent cut in property tax revenue that state lawmakers ordered in legislation passed Thursday.
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Several special taxing districts are also in line to cope with immediate cuts. Among them:
The South Broward Hospital District, which covers the hospitals and care centers in the Memorial Health Care System, stands to lose $900,000, said district spokeswoman Kerting Baldwin.
Broward’s Children’s Services Council would lose about $3.2 million of its nearly $70 million budget, said Cindy Arenberg Seltzer, the council’s president and CEO.
”We should be able to manage without drastic cuts,” she said — unless voters approve the super-exemptions.
The six-hospital North Broward Hospital District actually had higher taxes in 2006-07 than it had planned to have next year, said Alan Levine, the district’s president and CEO. So, tax bills only decrease when legislators add the extra 3 percent cut, reducing the $190 million proposed budget to $186.5 million.
”The fact that we cut taxes last year, that’s what’s saving us right now,” said Levine, who also is the former secretary of the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration.
But if voters do approve the exemption, the special districts would be facing brutal cuts.
The North Broward Hospital District would need to cut at least $20 million or $30 million, Levine estimates. And the effect is “potentially devastating.”
”That would have an impact on us,” he said. “We’d probably have to take a real hard look at how we do things.”
For example, he said, the hospital district might eliminate one of its trauma centers or cut back on nurse staffing levels.
As legislators this week debated proposed property-tax cuts that could lop off $7.2 billion from school board budgets across the state, a nationwide report came out showing that Florida ranked 45th among states on high school graduation rates.
How reducing education funding can help local school districts turn around that abysmal standing is a mystery. But one proposed tax cut, in the form of a proposed constitutional amendment, would do that. For the Volusia County School District, it could mean $44 million less in revenue next year; for Flagler, $13.2 million less.
Some legislators have said they would make up the difference, but such promises can’t be guaranteed — or budgeted. And even if the state kicked in more funds next year, legislators can’t make binding promises for future lawmakers.
“The current proposal reduces education’s tax base by more than $7.1 billion over five years, a cut so significant that it presents a nearly insurmountable hurdle to funding schools and students. Florida would merely fight to stay where we currently are – near the bottom of far too many public education funding analyses comparing our state with others nationally.”
Add fire hydrant inspections to the list of local services being held hostage to property tax overhauls.
Orange County commissioners agreed Tuesday to delay a total mapping, inspection and repair initiative that would help avoid the tragedy that killed an Orlando woman last year whose house burnt down near an inoperable hydrant.
Firefighters inspected 30 percent of the 12,000 public and private hydrants in unincorporated Orange County, so far, but it would cost another $1.3 million to complete to program and install an enforcement system. County leaders say they can’t afford to that, just yet.
State lawmakers are considering major property tax overhauls that could cut local government budgets deeply, so county leaders said they want to hold off on the program.
Tax cuts may also hamper the county’s push to get more tanker trucks staffed, which can carry huge loads of water to rural and suburban areas with no hydrants. Right now, only one of five tanker trucks are staffed.
Leesburg Interim City Manager Jay Evans said the mandatory tax cuts could cost the city just under $400,000.
Evans said the city would survive the cuts the first year but Leesburg will struggle to provide services over time. Anticipating reductions, the growing city has implemented a hiring freeze and canceled Sunday library hours to save money
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He added that residents could see lesser spending in parks and recreation, library services and road maintenance.
Also, redevelopment efforts along U.S. Highway 441 and U.S. Highway 27 may go away. The community redevelopment area is solely dependent on property taxes to fund things such as new sidewalks to improve the look of the corridor.
Officials in DeLand said their 9 percent cut was less severe than they expected, but they added that they expect much more severe cuts next year if the constitutional ammendment is approved.
“This year it’s like cutting your arm off. Next year it’ll be like cutting your head off,” said City Manager Mike Abels.
Officials were still hammering out the details on Monday of what the tax cuts will mean for DeLand. Previously, they said the cuts could include losing several firefighters and police officers, cutting back on some recreational offerings, and eliminating community events such as the annual art festivals and Bike Week.
Such cuts would only get more severe each year if the ammendment passes, said Abels.
“The constitutional ammendment would be the death knell. This first year, we’ll just be getting used to the noose,” he said.
In Winter Park, officials admitted the 9 percent first-year budget hit would not be as bad as they feared, but were still trying to figure out how much revenue the city would lose in the second year adjustments. Winter Park had already identified about $8 million in “non-critical” expenses ranging from the landscaping budget that hangs flowering pots along Park Avenue to the city’s community policing program. Winter Park estimated the first-year budget hit would be about $1.7 million.
As work on the budget continues, city commissioners will help staff prioritize those those non-critical costs and spread the cuts.
In a move that could become more common in other local governments, Winter Park prepared to vote Monday on the idea of establishing a fire services fee that would be charged through residents’ utility bills. A rate structure has not been presented, but the idea would be to create a new funding source for the city’s fire service. That would free up budget dollars for other needs.
Volusia County’s largest city, Deltona, is anticipating a loss of about $840,000 if it’s forced to set its rate at the rollback rate and cut another 7 percent. That would be about 1.19 percent of the city’s annual budget, city officials said.
Seminole County will have to slash 7 percent from its current general fund budget, or about $9.87 million, in the first phase of the property tax reform proposal. But county leaders have yet to identify where those cuts will be made.
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There have been some preliminary discussions about cuts, including cutting back library hours, he said. The county instituted a hiring freeze last month.
Kissimmee has prepared for tax cuts by saving about $500,000 with the freezing of 50 or so open positions, City Manager Mark Durbin said.
The City Commission will have to decide if it wants to fill some of those positions or wait until numbers are ready on the impact of the cuts in the second year. Durbin said staff was working with the property appraiser to generate those figures.
“From all reports the second year is going to be really, really bad,” he said.
The city stands lose about $3 million because of the freeze of tax collections at current-year levels plus an additional 9 percent cut.
Kissimmee is already moving forward with plans to increase a stormwater fee and institute a fire fee. The measures would lessen the impact of those services on the city’s general fund. Commissioners will vote on both issues for the first time Tuesday.
A $50-per-home fee for fire services could be implemented. Stormwater fees could increase $2 to $2.50 a month.
“We have to look at areas we are not required to fund,” said Durbin, who noted that some low priority services may have to be eliminated.
Added Kissimmee Mayor Jim Swan, “Cuts in service are a given. They will be across the board and impact every department we have. To what extent we don’t know.”
The city of DeBary is looking at a worst-case loss of nearly $1 million in revenue next year or almost 8 percent of the city’s general fund budget.
City manager Maryann Courson said the city already “runs very lean here” and that the Council will have to discuss what sacrifices will have to be made. “Nobody wants to lay anybody off,” she said.
That means departments like parks and recreation and big ticket items will be the most vulnerable. “If your house is burning down you want a fireman and you don’t care if your kid can play soccer,” she said.
But the loss in new capital projects could mean the city will have to forgoe its hope for a new city hall and new parks. Courson also said additions — like more deputies — likely won’t be added.
“We’re all going to have to figure out what we can do with what we’ve got,” she said. “It’s going to be painful. It’s a pretty scary thing going on right now.”
Charlie Crist says that the cuts shouldn’t be any problem, since the counties have huge reserves of cash. Crist is, of course, being dishonest.
The people that argue for cuts like these, calling these things unnecessary, don’t define the word correctly, in my opinion. A program is essential if it directly or indirectly helps a significant portion of the community in a way they couldn’t help themselves and simultaneously provides a significant direct or indirect benefit to the overall community. Almost all of these programs that are being cut, to me, are essential. If these cuts take place, Florida will suck more than it has in the past. Education will decline, business will decline, crime will increase.
Also, not mentioned in much of this talk is the increase in unfunded mandates from the state. The legislature in it’s regular session tells local governments to spend more — or else — and then cuts their ability to meet those mandates in the special session. And then they have the gall to shift the blame for future cuts to the people in a proposed law that is worded so few will be willing to oppose it. What mandates, you say?
As part of Gov. Charlie Crist’s sweeping elections overhaul, the state agreed to cover the cost of installing optical-scan machines in 15 counties that were using touch screens, including Palm Beach County. Passing along a federal government grant, the state earmarked $5.1 million to the county for 783 optical-scan machines, one for each precinct and early voting site.
But Anderson said Monday that to run efficient elections, he needs more than twice as much money to buy, among other things, 300 extra scanning machines for early voting sites and large precincts and as backups in case some scanners break down. Other costs not covered by the state: 7,000 new voting booths so people can mark their ballots in private and new high-speed scanners to tally the final vote.
It also appears that the budget passed in the regular session mandates increased spending on education.
What can we do about this? One, we can vote to put more Democrats in the legislature. If the recent national Democratic surge has shown us anything it’s that while a Democratic majority isn’t perfect, it does pursue significantly better policies than a Republican majority and that Democrats who cast iffy or wrong votes in the minority often become emboldened to cast better votes in the majority.
Two, and more importantly and more directly, we have to vote against the amendment in January. The good news is the Republican-mandated presidential preference primary and uninspiring Republican choices will supress conservative turnout, so all we have to do to limit the effects of this plan is to keep this amendment under 60%. Then we can work on the rest.
Ocala/Marion County:
The property tax system in Florida is not working. A NEW system of taxation should be put into place. Property taxes should not be the primary source of revenue and other modes of revenue examined … i.e. a state income tax. It is time to think out of the box!
I own a large number of vacant non-homestead properties in Marion County and I am being RAPED by property taxes. I have seen my taxes increase over 400% with the increase in property values due to the up swing in the Real Estate market. Furthermore, this year the Property Appraiser’s office is continuing on the same path by further increases DESPITE the fact that the last six months of last year saw property values decrease. Of course their formula for calculating values does not take into consideration the turn in the market. They are still using outdated formulas which are not relavent to the current market conditions.
Forget trying to have an honest discussion with them … they are set in their ways and will not consider hearing any other considerations for valuation. The only option left is to fight them by petition or a lawsuit.
Moral of the story …. non-homestead property owners are paying dearly and in some cases (i.e. vacant land owners) are NOT utilizing the services they are paying for each year (i.e. schools, fire and health care). The local residents are un fairly benefiting by outside investors.
In closing, Marion county has a total of 253,000 parcels of property within the county. 105,000 parcels are vacant! I guarantee you most of the owners of these parcels do not live in the county and therefore have NO voting rights. Hence, they have no say in how their hard earned tax dollars are spent within the county! Is that fair?
you have to look at this website.