Florida's Governor Crist Pushes to Extend Special Session to Deal With Property Tax Reform

Yesterday I informed you that the Florida legislature had reached an agreement concerning budget cuts and was set to vote it into law on Friday. Passage was almost a certainty. However, now I hear that Governor Crist is pushing them to continue on during this special session to address property tax reform, rather than have another session later in the month.

The urgency is caused by the fact that if a new tax reform proposal is to make it to the January 2008 ballot, it must be ready by the end of October. If you remember, a circuit court judge recently declared the previous ballot proposition to be "misleading" and took it off the ballot. Crist is advocating a simpler plan that would offer less tax savings. Some of his ideas are: doubling the current $25,000 homestead exemption, keep Save Our Homes intact, make it portable, protect marinas from tax rate spikes, give first-time home buyers a 25% reduction in their tax bills, and provide a variety of items that could give up to $25,000 in tax cuts to many businesses.

Don't you sometimes get the feeling that we are on a merry-go-round and can't get off? Will anything they do in Tallahassee do us any good? Insurance reform sure was a bust, as far as I can tell. My bet is that property tax reform will turn out just about the same way. Wait and see.

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