Legislative Update

Do you really trust these guys to make the right decisions about your money? If not, fire them.

Property Taxes

Naples News - Sen. Saunders: Don't expect state to pass further property tax breaks

"I don’t believe there will be much appetite in the Florida legislature to do anything additional," said Saunders, R-Naples. "I think the Legislature will stand down this coming year."

...

It isn’t just property taxes — it’s also property insurance, he said, and he noted the struggling state of the state’s economy — something he doesn’t expect will improve right away.

Insurance

Ocala Star Banner - A storm despite the calm

Florida's property insurers will pocket $3.4 billion this year, which promises to be another record-setter for many insurance companies, according to Associated Press reports. That's on top of $3 billion they made in 2006, for a two-year total of $6.4 billion.

In response Robert Hartwig, head of the industry group the Insurance Information Institute, pointed out that Florida's claims from the multiple storms in 2004 and '05 cost insurers $13.1 billion, meaning they are $6.7 billion in the hole. We're curious if that's for the industry as a whole in Florida, or just the companies that didn't flee the state when they got hit with all these claims.

In addition, Sam Miller, executive vice president of the Florida Insurance Council, explained why our rates won't drop: "You have to make money during the years there are no hurricanes," he told the AP.

Clear enough now? Lots of storms, premiums go up to pay claims. No storms, premiums go up - albeit maybe by not as much - to pay claims. Even here in the middle of the state.

Lakeland Ledger - Businesses now have coverage option in Citizens Insurance

Citizens Insurance is the state-run insurer of last resort. Typically, homeowners - and now business owners - get their property insurance through Citizens when they can't obtain it through other carriers due to the age of their property, construction type, the property's location in a high-risk area or failure to meet other insurers' eligibility guidelines.

What happens to the state budget if we get hit by one or more hurricanes?

Tax Reform

Florida Emerald Coast - State tax commission gets an earful

The 25-member commission can place proposed constitutional amendments directly on the ballot. Several people at the meeting were convinced that the board could bring about tax reform the Florida Legislature has failed to provide.

"Give Floridians a choice. Our legislators have proven they cannot do this," said Adam Guillette, the head of Florida’s chapter of Americans for Prosperity, who pushed for a "taxpayer protection amendment."

"You are our only hope."

We need to make the tax system more fair, which will reduce the tax burden for those who need it most, while still generating the necessary revenue to provide the services the public expects. Make sure your legislator is talking about actual tax reform, not merely tauting tax cuts for their own short-term political gain.

Legislative Delegation

Okaloosa County - Members of the delegation are holding a public meeting from 6-8 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 18. The meeting will take place in room 128 of the Okaloosa-Walton College campus.

See Calendar

Contact your local legislative delegation to find out about meetings in your area: Contact information for all County Legislative Delegations

Read More...

Summary only...

Legislative Update

Here's a few issues to think about before the legislative session convenes:


The Environment

The Ledger - Groups Organize to Save 'Forever'

Florida Forever, the program that supplies the money to buy and manage state parks and other environmental preserves, will expire in 2010. Then what?

A coalition of grassroots groups are being organized to push for extending the program at least until 2020 to finish the job begun decades ago and to find new ways to protect and manage land.

The Florida Forever Coalition is the group working on this project with the help of organizations like the Florida Wildlife Federation and the Audubon of Florida.

Environmental News Service - Florida seeks input on Northern Everglades Restoration

Florida state scientists and engineers today released a draft technical plan to protect and restore the Lake Okeechobee watershed and improve the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie watersheds, together known as the Northern Everglades.

The "Draft Lake Okeechobee Watershed Construction Project Phase II Technical Plan" is a critical step in the Northern Everglades initiative to protect and improve the quality, quantity, timing and distribution of water delivered to Lake Okeechobee and downstream receiving waters.

The multi-phased plan, developed by three state agencies, outlines the steps needed to reduce pollution, improve the health of the natural system north of the lake and clean water flowing into South Florida's "liquid heart."

The plan will be turned in to the Florida Legislature this February.

State Employees

Tallahassee Democrat - If a bonus were a bonus, it might mean something

Bill Cotterell reports on a new Florida TaxWatch publication called "Food for Thought" containing suggestions for improving government performance:

The topics include such riveting ideas as "Creating a culture of innovation in Florida government," "Organically growing cost savings," "Information management" and "Data integrity." In other words, if there was a way you could bottle this stuff, you could outsell Sominex and Nytol combined.

Perhaps the most interesting little chapter is titled "State employee merit pay." Not surprisingly, the corporate-funded TaxWatch is for it. Over the years, a common thread running through many TaxWatch white papers has been a belief that, as much as possible, working for state government ought to be like working in the private sector.

But the big difference in the TaxWatch proposal is that merit pay should be in addition to general, across-the-board percentage pay raises - not instead of them.

Just so you know, the bonus this year was $673.50 after taxes and only applied to career service employees. The state has hundreds of employees who work full-time called OPS who get no benefits at all, let alone year end bonuses. Also, Florida ranks near the bottom in terms of state workers to population and cost of state personnel per resident.

For more detailed information please review the Florida Tax Watch report: "Food For Thought"

Taxes

WMBB TV Panama City - Florida to reexamine internet sales taxes

Florida’s attempts at collecting what it is owed from online shopping would be downright comical were it not for the amount of money at stake – as much as $2.4 billion in the state next year and almost $34 billion nationally. Now, with the state’s economy slumping, its budget in the red and taxpayers in open revolt, attention is turning once again to simplifying – and enforcing – Internet sales tax collections.

The topic will be addressed in the Florida Senate's Finance and Tax Committee and is also being discussed by the Taxation and Budget Reform Committee.

Bradenton Herald - Will Florida regain sales-tax money?

Florida TaxWatch has pushed for imposing the sales tax on online purchases as a way to broaden the tax base and lower property-tax rates. The state loses about $2.35 billion a year in potential sales tax on goods sold in Florida over the Internet or through other remote means, the group maintains.

The tax commission's finance committee Friday decided to require Florida to join 22 other states in an agreement to streamline their tax laws so they can begin collecting taxes on Internet, catalog and other remote sales. That's a measure McKay says will likely have the commission's universal endorsement.

"I think we ought to force online retailers to collect sales tax," McKay said. "Failure to do so puts Florida merchants at a significant disadvantage."

The Taxation and Budget Reform Commission recommended that the Florida Legislature revamp the entire sales-tax system and review all the exemptions and exclusions on the books.

Voting

News-Press - Many would-be Florida voters 'lost'

Like thousands of other would-be Florida voters, Figueroa's application went astray in a state registration process that since 2006 has become more computerized, circuitous and complex.

County election officials say the number of voters lost through Florida's central registration system is small — 90 percent of applications get voter cards.

The result is applications from more than 43,000 Floridians hoping to become eligible voters over the past 21 months were rejected by state computer programs and kicked out for special review.

After you turn in your voter registration form, follow-up and be persistant.

Housing Market

Naples News - Florida holds $2 billion in junk bonds

Think private investors are the only ones affected by the recent sub-prime mortgage fallout? Think again.

Florida holds about $2.3 billion in non-investment grade securities as it feels the effects of the bottomless mortgage market, the state’s top investment officials told the governor and cabinet last week.

Over the past several months, about $2.3 billion worth of state investments have been downgraded to so-called junk status. That said, Coleman Stipanovich, director of the State Board of Administration, told cabinet members many of the underlying investments remain sound and the SBA is not jettisoning them en masse.

Daytona Beach News-Journal - Housing slump hits home

If all you want to do is sell your house and the talk of subprime meltdowns, securitization and the Federal Reserve Bank's interest rate cuts is Greek to you, you're in good company.

For others in Volusia and Flagler counties who aren't even trying to buy or sell a house, it may seem like a mystery why the housing slump is hurting them, too. People are losing their jobs, their retirement, their savings. It started with layoffs in construction and real estate and then trickled down to harm schoolteachers, secretaries and restaurant workers.

"The gal who does my nails said her business is struggling," said Mary Spearman, president of Gulf Stream Mortgage in Port Orange. "If people cut back, that's the kind of thing they cut out. I've talked to a lot of people and this has affected all types of businesses."

Floridians are used to weathering storms, but this latest battering has taken a heavy toll.

On a personal note, I just got a letter from Countrywide encouraging me to buy a home and offering a new 40 Year Mortgage that will ensure my payments are affordable. Look, if you don't think I can afford to buy a home using a standard 30 year fixed rate mortage, chances are, I can't afford to buy a home.

Read More...

Summary only...

Taxes, taxes, taxes

How do voters really feel about the Florida Legislature's "tax reform" measure? We'll find out in a mere 11 weeks on January 29th. In the meantime, there's plenty in the media and the blogosphere to offer us clues:

National Exposure

TIME Magazine - Can Florida's Tax Revolt Stay Alive?

The reformers met stiff resistance from cities and counties that rely on property taxes to keep the lights on — and, in many cases, spent like sailors during the real estate boom and now find their coffers depleted during the current real estate bust. Crist and Tallahassee also failed to convince the public how they'd achieve the cuts without injuring a school system that remains one of the most underfunded in the country. Instead of sweeping changes, the politicians now talk of incremental steps they'll pursue over the next several years to provide tax relief to homeowners, renters, snowbirds and businesses. That may not be fast enough; the state is rapidly losing its allure as a low-cost haven — so much so that a Zogby International poll this year that showed half of South Floridians and 37% of all Floridians are considering leaving the state.

Voters, however, may not wait around for lawmakers to continue tinkering. Frustrated by legislative inaction, grass-roots tax reformers are now considering following California's Proposition 13 example from the 1970s and shooting for citizen-driven initiatives to cap what local governments can spend by tying local budgets to cost-of-living increases and economic growth. "Legislators dropped the ball, absolutely," said Margie Patchett, executive director of Volusia Tax Reform, one of a dozen groups that have formed to change the property tax structure with an eye toward a possible 2010 ballot initiative. "They had a perfect opportunity to do something significant and they lacked the political will and courage to do it."

I added the emphasis on how low funding is for schools in this state. If our leaders in Florida want a stable tax base, one of the things they need to do is attract industries into the state that provide high paying jobs. The best jobs tend to require a well-educated workforce and when such industries look at places to locate their businesses, one of the factors they consider is the availability of a quality education. Higher paying jobs leads to more people who can afford to buy a home, which leads to a more stable tax base. Our educational system and our economic circumstances are connected.

As for people leaving the state, this native Floridian wouldn't necessarily be sad to see them go.

BTW, the Volusia Tax Reform organization cited in the TIME article is not a non-partisan group given how excited they are that Jeb! Bush is wearing one of their stickers or their endorsement by the local Republican Party. Now, there's nothing wrong with being partisan, but I thought readers should know that the group mentioned in the article pushing for reform are doing so from a particular political perspective.

Local Heat

Ocala Star-Banner - Panderers and charades

... Crist and the sheep who call themselves leaders in the Legislature are indeed pandering with what they call tax reform. The recent property tax reform is a charade, nothing more than a shell game that will shift more of the burden of Florida's burgeoning public service demands to cities, counties and school boards, while at the same time idiotically curtailing their ability to raise tax dollars to pay the ever-growing tab.

The hocus-pocus measure passed by the Legislature — with plenty of arm twisting by Crist, so he could disingenuously claim he delivered on a promise to cut property taxes — will presumably "cut" taxes by $12 billion over five years. Analysts say it should mean an average property tax savings of $240.

What those in Tallahassee don't tell us is that the state gave up nothing. What they won't acknowledge is while they have cut the amount cities, counties and school boards can raise to pay for essential services, those bodies will likely have to tax in other ways — through assessments, fees and local sales taxes. And when those new taxes are enacted, you can bet your property tax savings those self-serving cowards in Tallahassee will say, "Well, we tried to cut your taxes."

Lakeland Ledger - What Passes for Florida Tax Reform

This has been all about political bragging rights, not fairness or equity. The end result: A tax proposal that is even less fair, less inequitable, less able to support Florida's fiscal needs and even more difficult to fix in the future.

Polls Indicate

Palm Beach Post Poll - What Floridians think about the property tax amendment (PDF)

Property Tax Plan
53% - Yes
27% - No
20% - Undecided

Property Tax Plan (*after given arguments against)

47% - Yes
36% - No
16% - Undecided

* voters heard the amendment would benefit those who need it least, would not help first-time home buyers, and would cut into education funding.

Miami-Herald - Poll: Voters not sold on property-tax plan

Additional results to the same poll:

A whopping 77 percent said legislators did a fair or poor job on tax relief, "a very scathing indictment of a body that just produced a major tax-reform plan," Eldon said.

And that same number -- 77 percent -- of voters believe the Legislature's efforts in January to reduce property-insurance rates did very little to nothing at all. Only 10 percent said they believe rates will go down.

--snip--

Only 34 percent of voters believe the state is headed in the right direction, while 44 percent say it's heading down the "wrong track."

While 23 percent of voters surveyed rated property taxes as the worst strain on their household budgets, 25 percent said homeowners insurance was the worst. Those financial woes were followed by gasoline prices, healthcare costs, home energy rates and consumer credit-card debt.

Learn More

TCPalm.com - Tax Reform? - this article offers a little Q&A on how the tax plan would effect residents if inacted.

November 13 - FLORIDA TODAY will host a public forum called "Florida Tax Reform: What It Means To You." The session will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. at the newspaper, one mile north of the Pineda Causeway on U.S. 1 in Melbourne.

November 19 - League of Women Voters in Collier County will hold a public property tax forum at 12:30 p.m. at the Collier Athletic Club, 7th Avenue North in Naples.

November 19 - Property Tax Forum at Florida Gulf Coast University in Lee County, 7 to 9 p.m. at FGCU's student ballroom, 10501 FGCU Blvd. S., in south Lee County off Ben Hill Griffin Parkway between Alico and Corkscrew roads.

Bloggers Weigh In

FCD turns Florida Blue - Property Tax (R)eform

Florida Kossacks - Local Elected Officials - Please Stand Up

Read More...

Summary only...