Property Tax Protests Plague Florida Real Estate Market
In the last five years, James Knotts of Spring Hill says his property taxes have risen 100 percent.
During that same period, his house insurance soared 300 percent, he told county commissioners at Tuesday’s budget workshop.
It’s time, Knotts said, that lawmakers get their “heads out of the sand” and do something to bring relief to suffering taxpayers in Hernando County. Especially, he said, for Florida mortgage holders on Social Security and fixed incomes.
Knotts was one of about 200 people who packed a county commission budget workshop Tuesday pleading for tax reform. Many carried signs and tea bags, symbolizing the famous Revolutionary tax protest.
Rep. Robert Schenck and Sen. Paula Dockery attended the workshop. Sen. Mike Fasano sent an aide.
Because it was a workshop, there were no decisions and no votes. Despite that knowledge, people showed up in droves to get their point across, especially to the local legislative delegation who will be meeting in special session next week to hammer out some kind of property tax reform bill.
“We’ll try to get something done quickly,” Dockery told the crowd. “We’ve heard you.”
Dockery was vocal throughout the workshop, trying to pin Budget Director George Zoettlein and other county staffers down on local budget specifics.
Dockery said the Save Our Homes amendment, which limits annual increases in assessed value of homesteaded property to three years or the Consumer Price Index — whichever is lower — has proven popular with many Florida mortgage loan borrowers; it has also brought about inequities in the system, Dockery said.
One proposal being considered would be replace the current system with a new homestead exemption, based on the value of the property’s value and not on the median county home value.
Dockery said legislators must walk a fine line between cutting taxes and jeopardizing public service. For example, sheriffs in Hernando and other counties are already equating budget cuts to deputy layoffs and less room for prisoners in jails.
“We can’t cut public safety,” Dockery said. “There is an increase in crime in [the Florida housing market]. Do you want criminals in jail or out in the population?”
Schenck was less vocal Tuesday. However, he promised he would do his best to alleviate the high taxes crushing homeowners. Both Dockery and Schenck received limited applause. County commissioners, who reiterated their mantra of vowing to make deep cuts where necessary, also received polite applause.
The real handclapping and shouts were reserved for fellow taxpayers, who one-by-one told lawmakers that the weight of high taxes and property insurance is forcing them to either leave Hernando County or face foreclosures.
Many residents said they were tired of commissioners’ using scare tactics to threaten them into accepting their plight. Board members have said any drastic decrease in revenue resulting from state-mandated changes, would result in fewer deputies and possibly result in cutting services such as parks, libraries and other amenities.
Activist Joe Lemieux doesn’t believe any of that will happen. He likened it to screaming fire in a crowded theater.
It’s time, he said, for commissioners to cut bloated salaries and outrageous spending.
“They keep screwing the public while they dance,” Lemieux said to wild cheering. “We have allowed it to happen by not changing the people who sit up here.”
Ana Trinque, chairwoman of the Hernando County Republican Party said the county raked in big bucks during he housing explosion of 2006.
“What did the county do with all that money from the housing boom?” she asked.
Realtor Vera DuGray said she can live with reduced services if it means cutting her taxes.
“We don’t need as many parks,” she said. “We need tax relief and it has to come now.”
SOURCE: Hernando Today
