South Florida Mortgage, Insurance, Tax Costs Worry Residents

From Key West to Jupiter, residents of the South Florida housing market are more likely than other Florida voters to feel socked by high living costs.

They are also more likely to be mistrustful of local government and more trapped by a distorted property tax system that they’re more willing to reform, even if it costs them, a new poll shows.

That instability has led half of South Floridians - compared with 37 percent statewide - to recently consider moving elsewhere, according to a Zogby International poll, conducted for The Miami Herald and WFOR-CBS 4 in association with The Palm Beach Post and WPEC-CBS 12.

The new poll of 801 likely Florida voters will give some ammunition to state lawmakers in the 11-day session to reform property taxes.

Starting Tuesday, they’ll consider tax-rate rollbacks, caps and exemptions worth an estimated $31.6 billion over five years to local governments.

But voters, who would have to approve at least half of the cuts in January, also have nuanced views on property taxes.

Many voters don’t appear to be in the state of crisis suggested by state legislators and Gov. Charlie Crist. Also, voters aren’t clear on how much sky-high Florida housing market costs price them out of the market or if the tax code imprisons them in their own homes.

WHAT VOTERS WANT

The expansion of taxable gambling was the most popular choice among voters who were asked how they would prefer to offset the costs of tax cuts.

Next, voters said they’d like to increase property tax exemptions. Lastly, they’d prefer to offset cuts by swapping homeowner taxes for a sales-tax increase. Crist and the anti-gambling GOP Legislature won’t countenance gambling, rejected the sales-tax swap this spring, and settled on a plan for rollbacks, caps and the super-sizing of homestead exemptions.

Floridians by a 54 percent to 39 percent margin said they would oppose cutting taxes if they “knew it meant reducing local-government services.”

But by a 52-43 spread, they don’t believe such reductions would happen - despite the claims of city and county governments, many of which taxed and spent heavily in the now-ended Florida real estate boom.

With massive tax incomes for many local governments, housing scandals in Miami-Dade County, and federal authorities probing for corruption within the Broward Sheriff’s Office and West Palm Beach government, South Floridians appear to be souring on local government.

By a narrow 42-39 margin, they are more likely to trust the state instead of local government with their tax money. The statewide numbers: 40 percent in favor of local government and 39 for the state.

Those figures are well within the poll’s error margin of 3.5 percentage points statewide, and 5 percentage points for the 407 South Florida voters.

But they’re significant in that Tallahassee government is often a greater turnoff to voters than city or county hall.

HOMEOWNERS’ PLIGHT

“Government is all about taking and not giving back. There’s definitely too much waste and mismanagement,” said Mary McKenzie, 58, an independent voter and poll respondent who has lived in South Dade since 1977.

Though McKenzie paid her house off years ago, she said she had to borrow $75,000 to pay her bills, especially for her failing health.

Her taxes: $2,000 yearly - less than half of her property insurance payments.

They’ve been kept low by the constitutional Save Our Homes provision that caps increases of homesteaded property-tax assessments at a maximum three percent yearly.

McKenzie said she wants to move somewhere cheaper, in the North or Central Florida housing market, but can’t sell her home. Nor can she carry her Save Our Homes protection with her.

Legislators can’t figure a way to allow for this so-called “portability.” So they want voters to approve a series of super-sized exemptions for homeowners that would allow them to pay taxes on just 25 percent of their first $200,000 in value.

They would be taxed on 85 percent of the next $300,000 in value.

But McKenzie isn’t sure if she’ll vote for it on Jan. 29 because it’s so new and would gradually phase out Save Our Homes. Even if the plan passes, McKenzie could keep the Save Our Homes protection if it’s a better deal, which would be the case for almost half of South Floridians, compared with 73 percent of other Floridians.

And compared with 67 percent of people statewide, about 87 percent of South Floridians said Florida mortgage costs are too expensive. High living costs are the No. 1 reason Floridians are considering leaving.

Property taxes rank second.

By a 52-39 margin, South Floridians support making the system more “fair” to owners of new homes and non-homesteaded properties, who bear the brunt of the tax-code inequities. Statewide, voters favor a “fair” change by a 47-43 margin.

Those numbers aren’t high enough to garner the 60 percent vote needed to change the state Constitution. A big reason: Likely voters tend to be longtime homeowners, who have benefited the most from Save Our Homes.

NOT AN EASY SELL

Those numbers show “a shift in the political culture in Florida” from one in which voters demand lower taxes and don’t mind less government to one in which “individual voters pay a lot in taxes and expect to get it all back in terms of services,” Zogby said.

“This is not going to be an easy sell,” Zogby said of Crist and the Florida Legislature’s plans. “And if in order to cut property taxes you have to cut services, voters are pretty clear that you have to make the case that it’s fat, it’s waste and that it’s other people’s programs.”

And though the politicians have rallied around the premise that loads of homeowners - especially seniors - are trapped in their homes by the tax code, Floridians are divided on whether high property taxes have kept them from moving.

Seniors and those making less than $35,000 a year seem least inclined to move if the tax code were changed.

About 54 percent of South Floridians say they feel the tax hike on new homes has kept them from moving, with 41 percent saying it hasn’t. The statewide numbers: 47 percent say the tax shock has affected their moving plans, and 49 percent say it hasn’t.

If South Floridians could get a tax break when they move, 54 percent say they probably would. About 41 percent say they would not. The statewide numbers: 44-52.

Tim Smith, a former Fort Lauderdale commissioner, just wants to move 100 feet west to his rental house. It’s 1,300 square feet smaller and has one less bedroom, but the tax bill is $7,000 - $5,200 more.

Given his current Florida home loan status, he and his wife are staying put. For now.

“I’m willing to accept some higher taxes,” Smith said, “but not this.”

SOURCE: Miami Herald