The eleven day special session deciding the fate on the future of Florida's property tax came to end after only three days. For those of you that watched the videos showing Governor Crist praising the plans to eliminate our property taxes on our site, you'll no doubt be surprised disappointed with the plan that was chosen to be taken to vote.

The new plan mentions nothing about rolling back values to 2003, and nothing about eliminating property taxes and supplementing them with a higher sales tax. Instead, we're left with a plan that gives you a choice: slightly reduce your property taxes, or stay with the 3% yearly increase cap of the current 'Save Our Homes' plan (insert thunderous applause here).

Will this new plan win the vote on January 29th? There's guaranteed to be a toe-to-toe battle leading up to the decision. The new plan will leave schools with approximately $3.5 billion loss of property tax collection, leaving it up to the Florida Government to adequately fund education, and we all know how well that's been going. The proposed constitutional amendment to create a new, super-sized homestead exemption for primary homeowners needs support from 60 percent of voters.

The new plan would save taxpayers only about $8 billion over five years, analysts said, and is expected to save the average homeowner 7 percent on tax bills this fall. But the $174 average first-year savings would climb to at least several hundred dollars per year for many homeowners if the expanded homestead exemption gains approval. Needing no voter approval, a $15.6 billion rollback of city and county property-tax collections also was approved by lawmakers Thursday.

Want to know YOUR estimated 1st year savings? Head over to the tax calculator on the Orlando Sentinel


Haven't had enough? Here are a few more articles for your reading pleasure:

Tax Cut; New Fight Looms - Orlando Sentinel
Legislature Passes Tax-Cutting Plan - Orlando WESH TV2
Florida Lawmakers Approve Tax Cut Bill - MyFOX Orlando

Tags: property taxes, orlando, Crist, government, florida

Here we go again. When Governor Crist came to Orlando and told us all his unrealistic amazing plan to cut Florida property taxes, why did we get so excited? Did we really think this would happen? In retrospect, it all seems like a bunch of ra-ra now. If you're still interested, here's another update on the situation.

Last week, Gov. Crist vetoed a $459m spending budget, and House Democrat Leader Dan Gelber suggested using the savings to cut property taxes, but House Speaker Marco Rubio, said the suggestion is unsound.

“Unfortunately, following your suggestion of using the money saved by the Governor’s vetoes would violate not just a principle of responsible budgeting but also the wishes of the people of Florida as reflected in our state’s constitution,” Rubio, R-West Miami, wrote in a letter dated Friday.

“Given sound budgeting principles and constitutional budget restraints, I encourage you to consider other recurring expenses as an opportunity to reduce property taxes,” Rubio wrote.

Crist had some fun last week signing into law a $71.5 billion state budget after vetoing spending items such as local cultural projects and a 5% tuition increase for college students. This same budget includes a $545m increase in the state's required local property tax for public schools. There will be a special session on June 12-22 to cut city and county property taxes - can't wait!

Now is it just me, or does this seem to be completely different from the grand promises made in Orlando a few short weeks ago. Stay tuned for another exciting episode of Will They, Won't They.

Related Articles:
Will They, Won't They Part 1 - Ekday
Property Tax Update - The Insider Real Estate Blog (Tampa)
Property Tax Update - SouthWest Florida Real Estate News
Florida Politics News for 4/30/07 - FLA Politics
Orlando Town Hall Meeting - Ekday
Florida Property Tax Reform Debate Continues - The Tax Foundation

Tags: orlando, florida, property taxes