1st DCA rejects Save Our Homes challenge: Black Flag dead

The First District Court of Appeal wasted little paper dismissing the latest appeal to the Save Our Homes Amendment and Amendment 1 challenge. That tactic used to throw out the constitutional caps on property tax assessments now appears to be all but dead. Download DCA SOA appeal

Burden of proof property tax bill becomes law

At a ceremony in the Capitol Thursday, Gov. Charlie Crist signed legislation that lowers the burden of proof for property owners who challenge their tax bills. Joining Crist at the ceremony were Mark Wilson of the Florida Chamber of Commerce (at left) and John Sebree of the Florida Association of Realtors (at right).

Before HB 521 became law, the burden was on the taxpayer to prove that the appraisal was incorrect. The new standard is the preponderance of the evidence, and the change "is an added protection for taxpayers and it's good public policy," Crist said. Asked about concerns by local governents that the legislation could "handcuff" them by costing them up to $500-million, Crist said: "Florida taxpayers feel handcuffed and they need some help."

The bill will not affect pending property tax challenges, but it will affect taxpayer challenges filed with counties' Value Adjustment Boards in 2009. Challenges are usually filed in August and September. The legislators who led the charge on the bill were Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey and Rep. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, R-Miami.

-- Steve Bousquet

Lawmakers move closer on preK-12 budget

The preK-12 budget conference committee just met, with the Senate providing its counteroffer to last night’s House bid. The sides appear to be moving quickly to agreement, though the talk today was about provisions in the budget, not the funding numbers themselves. That comes later today. New in the Senate offer:

• A pitch to preserve bonuses for all of Florida’s National Board certified teachers. The House plan was to limit the bonuses, which have been $5,000 a year, to classroom teachers in low-performing schools. “We don’t want to disenfranchise people who work hard,” said Sen. Stephen Wise, R-Jacksonville.
• A proposal to waive green building requirements for school districts during the 2009-10 school year, which would let districts meet building standards but not have to spend more money on environmentally friendly materials.
• A plan to create a pilot study for English for Speakers of Other Languages, or ESOL, teacher training. The study would look at whether teachers with fewer hours of training could provide the same quality instruction as teachers receiving more training.

One of the biggest sticking points may end up being a plan to shift some property-tax money normally designated for school districts' capital budgets into its day-to-day operating budgets. That provision is still in the budget proposal, but lawmakers from Miami-Dade and Broward -- including Rep. Anitere Flores, a Miami Republican, Sen. Larcenia Bullard, a Miami Democrat, and Rep. Martin Kiar, a Davie Democrat -- said they hope to change that. Urban school districts with big-ticket construction, maintenance and technology have said the change might leave them without enough money for school upkeep.

A possible compromise: allowing school districts, at their discretion, so raise more property taxes to go to their capital budgets. Of course, that would pass the politically unpopular buck of raising taxes to school board members.

-- Amy Hollyfield and Patricia Mazzei

House passes bill to aid in assessment challenges

A bill that would shift part of the burden from taxpayer to the local property appraiser when the two are at odds, overwhelmingly passed the Florida House on Monday.

Under the proposal by Rep. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, R-Miami, if a property owner disputes the assessed value of his or her property, the property appraiser would need to prove that the office followed all state laws and professional standards when assessing a property -- a burden that currently falls on the taxpayer.

If the property appraiser meets that standard, the assessment is then presumed to be correct, the burden then shifts back to the property owner to show that the assessment exceeds the value of the property or is out of line with similar properties nearby.

“During difficult economic times, it’s vital that we use every opportunity available to us to provide fairness and relief to Florida taxpayers,” Lopez-Cantera said in a written statement.  “The current property appraisal system is weighted heavily in the favor of government at the expense of taxpayers, and it needs to change.”

The House bill cleared that chamber 110-3. Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, is sponsoring a similar proposal in the Senate.

House barrels ahead with property tax amendments

If the state's flailing economy was to give legislators any pause about embedding permanent tax cuts into the state Constitution, there was no sign of it in the House Military and Local Affairs Committee today. It passed along three constitutional amendments that would: 

* Give first-time homeowners a one-time property tax exemption that would disappear over five years;

* Expand the Save Our Homes-styled cap on commercial and non-residential property taxes from 10 percent to five percent

* Cap all property taxes at annual increases of 1.35 percent.

The concerns of local governments, particularly small, fiscally-strapped counties were easily dismissed.

High court moves up Amend 5 hearing date

Chalk one up for Mike Haridopolos. The Melbourne state senator sent out a plaintive press release Tuesday urging the Florida Supreme Court to move up the date of the hearing on Amendment 5.

Today, they did. But it's likely they weren't responding Haridopolos but to the pleas from attorneys in the case from both sides, who on Monday filed briefs urging the court to move up the date. The court changed it from Sept. 8 to Sept. 3 -- in time for a quick decision, if they deliver one, to get the ballots approved by the Sept. 5 ballot deadline.

Haridopolos wants court date moved up in ballot challenge

Warning of ballot confusion, Sen. Mike Haridopolos sent a press release out today urging the Florida Supreme Court to move up the hearing date, now set for Sept. 8, on the Amendment 5 challenge.

"By waiting until Sept. 8, ballots will be created with language that may or may not be on the ballot, costing the state valuable dollars and creating confusion for the electorate,” Haridopolos wrote.

It's not clear whether Haridopolos, who is not a lawyer, sent his comments via email or letter, or if he just expects the high court to respond to his press release after reading the blogs.

For Haridopolos, it doesn't hurt to try. “We understand that the Court has a set schedule and is flooded with numerous important requests,'' his press release notes, "but this issue is of urgent importance to Florida voters who deserve a clean ballot, free of language that has been ruled unconstitutional.''

100,000 signatures down, more than 500,000 to go

If you show up at the polls in Miami-Dade on Tuesday, don't be alarmed if you're hounded for your John Hancock.

Volunteers with the property tax reform group "Fair Property Tax For All" plan on canvassing county precincts Tuesday, to help drum up support and signatures for a tax proposal floating around since January.

The proposal would cap the amount of the amount of taxes a property owner pays to 1.35 percent of the value of his property.

About 100,000 signatures have been collected statewide since the group first launched its efforts in January, said Rep. David Rivera, a Miami Republican. It's still very shy of the 611,000 signatures needed to force the issue onto a state ballot.

Rivera, spoke at a Monday morning press conference outside of a Miami real estate agency trying to shore up support.

"With the judge's decision on Amendment 5, and property assessments arriving in the mail this week, it's given a renewed sense of urgency to this issue," Rivera said.

Tax swap poses tough math problem for Legislature

Amendment 5, the major constitutional ''tax swap'' on the November ballot that would replace school property taxes with other revenues, poses one of the biggest math problems the Florida Legislature will ever have to solve.

If the amendment passes, the numbers will be tough to work out, due to the Legislature's cloudy fiscal track record and some vague wording in the measure itself.

The amendment calls for the complete elimination of the state-set property tax for schools -- 25 percent of the average property-owner's tax bill. To replace the lost money, the amendment says, legislators would have to increase the sales tax by a penny, eliminate some sales-tax exemptions, levy new taxes or even cut the budget.

How much tax revenue will they have to replace? Maybe $9.3 billion. Maybe $11 billion. No one's quite sure. Though the amendment demands that the Legislature make up the lost education money, it's unclear how to figure the amount, according to state economists.

More here

Haridopolos to McKay: Let's get ready to rumble

Sen. Mike Haridopolos, who has put together a coalition to battle the tax swap proposal going before voters this fall, issued a challenge on Monday to former Senate President John McKay. The Brevard County Republican wants to go mano a mano against McKay to debate Amendment 5, which Haridopolos contends will be a train wreck for the state's economy.

Haridopolos says that he wants members of the public to understand the impacts of the amendment - which calls for eliminating property taxes and then replacing some, but not all, of the money with a one-cent hike in the sales tax. He would like to hold debates in all the major media markets of the state. Haridopolos, who has not issued his challenge personally to McKay, said if the senator declines his invitation then his group, Protect Florida's Future, will go ahead and hold town hall meetings to talk to people about Amendment 5.