Florida Property Tax Reform Has Doubting Thomases

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By Alexandra Clough
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Will the tax reform plan help end the pain in the real estate market?
Not likely, said Palm Beach County Property Appraiser Gary Nikolits.
South Floridareal estate


Last week, Nikolits addressed the first meeting of the Master Brokers Forum in Palm Beach County, held at The Resort on Singer Island. The Master Brokers Forum, already active in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, consists of Realtors producing $5 million a year in sales during the past five years. In other words, people with a dog in this real estate tax fight.
The standing-room-only crowd of nearly 100 listened carefully to a panel discussion of real estate, taxes and insurance. But when Nikolits told the group that the Florida Legislature's tax reform measure fell short, Nikolits was greeted with applause, or as he put it, "hoots and hollers."
Why? Because Nikolits stated what is becoming increasingly obvious: The proposed tax reform won't help all taxpayers and therefore won't do much to lift the sagging real estate market.
The reform fails to address the need for "portability," meaning people cannot bring their Save our Homes exemption with them to another property. Nikolits said the reform plan also still keeps the biggest tax burden on those without Save Our Homes, such as snowbirds who have second houses in Florida.
"The same basic problem is that not everybody is still being treated the same," Nikolits said Wednesday, the day after the meeting. "I don't see where you've done anything for tax reform."

Richard Newquist, Realtor par non in Jacksonville, said the bill requires voting out the Save our Homes legislation limiting assessed valuations to a maximum of 3% per year. "That'll be gone", said Newquist. "Not only that", continued Newquist, "the out of state real estate owners get no benefit at all from the SOH legislation and nothing from this legislation".

What needs to be done, suggested Newquist, is to go back to the drawing board and come up with a real property tax savings bill that will cut homeowner costs while assisting communities cope with the reduced revenue. "We can't have the mayors of every little town saying they're going to cut police protection when that is the PRIMARY function of the local government to begin with".