May 23, 2007
Dear Senator Mike Haridopolos and Representative Dean Cannon:
While I appreciate that there has been
movement toward tax relief, I remain concerned that we will not satisfactorily
address the many complexities of this issue in sufficient time to properly
address them in the upcoming Special Session. At this juncture, all we have is a
very vague agreement that "super-exemptions" for homestead property is the
preferred approach. While my caucus
is obviously in agreement with this approach, the property tax crisis has
numerous interlocking pieces, and if we are to address it both meaningfully and
responsibly we need to do more than generally agree on only one aspect of its
many faces.
I would recommend, therefore, that the
agenda for our June 4 meeting have the goal of producing a specific and
comprehensive framework that addresses a greater range of issues implicated by
this task. I think it equally
important that we give the many stakeholders – especially property owners and
homeowners, but also local government officials – the chance to comment
and critique our direction in the weeks preceding the special session. Further,
our committee should review the budgets of a good sample of affected taxing
entities to determine more precisely how the proposal would impact
citizens.
Finally, we need to begin to apprehend the
costs and consequences of each of these issues as they obviously
interrelate. For instance, it makes
little sense to discuss how much homestead tax relief we want to deliver without
considering what we intend to deliver to Florida's business community and to
renters. Or if we "grandfather" in Save Our Homes, what kind of assessment cap,
or revenue limiter, is available to protect property owners from future
excessive increases. Clearly, we can't solve one face of this Rubik's cube and
then worry about resolving the remaining sides.
Consistent with this suggestion, what
follows is a list of the issues that we believe need to be addressed at our June
4 meeting. I would add that attached is the House Democratic tax relief and
reform package which attempted to address all of these issues in a fairly
detailed way.
Issues that Need to Be
Addressed:
I.
Method and amount of
Homestead Property Tax Relief
II.
Method and amount of
Non-Homestead, Residential Property Tax Relief, Including Renters
III.
Method and amount of
Commercial Property Tax Relief
IV.
State & Local Government
Revenue Controls
V.
Save Our Homes Limitations
VI.
Portability for
VII.
Assessment Limitation on Real
Property
VIII.
Whether to include exemptions
or mitigation for Fiscally Constrained Counties and Cities, Special Taxing
Districts, Education Funds
Our
hope is that at the conclusion of our next meeting, we will have sufficiently
addressed these topics and produced a specific framework that will provide a
basis through which to receive input and information. I would repeat my request that we seek an
impact conference from the Revenue Estimating Conference on some of these
proposals. Furthermore, I believe we should also request that Florida TaxWatch
conduct an econometric model study of final proposals. The model, which would be
prepared in collaboration with the Center for Economic Forecasting and
Analysis at
I commend you for your efforts. I do believe, however, that this is not one of those issues that is best resolved in private, or at the rushed end of a Special Session. Ultimately, if we do not craft a proposal that is structurally sound and can easily muster 60% approval on election day, we will have done an incredible disservice to our citizens who will be without tax relief for yet another year.
Thank you for your service.
Dan Gelber
Democratic Leader
Cc: Honorable Charlie Crist, Governor
Honorable Alex Sink, Chief Financial Officer
Honorable Charles Bronson, Commissioner of Agriculture & Consumer Services
Honorable Bill McCollum, Attorney General
Honorable Ken Pruitt, Senate President
Honorable Marco Rubio, Speaker of the House
Honorable Daniel Webster, Senate Majority Leader
Honorable Steve Geller, Senate Democratic Leader