Governor Backs Plan to Change Homestead Exemption

Gov. Charlie Crist took the first step Monday toward campaigning for a new constitutional amendment to restructure the state’s homestead exemption.

Crist lent his name and publicity machine to a new political committee created to support an amended homestead exemption, according to the Palm Beach Post.

“It’s this simple: If you want your property taxes lowered, you should vote ‘yes on one’ on the amendment January 29,” he said at a news conference at the Tampa home of a retired carpenter.

The “Yes on One - Save Our Homes NOW” political committee will be chaired by state Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, and will be backed by the Florida Association of Realtors, Associated Industries of Florida and others.

It also has garnered support of the Florida mortgage lender faction - as the Mortgage Bankers Association of Florida also announced its support.

“I brought a football with me because we’re going to give the ball to the people of Florida on the next phase of this giant property tax cut,” said former college quarterback Crist, flipping a ball in his hands.

Crist has given mixed signals in the months since the legislature voted to place the tax revision on the January 29 presidential primary ballot.

• At first, he indicated that the issue was really up to voters, and that he would be fine with whatever they chose.
• Now as polls show potentially softening support, Crist has hinted he would get more engaged with the debate over property taxes, explaining last week that he would work to “frame” the question properly to voters.

“I can’t believe this is happening,” said Veronica Greco, 59, who said she wants to downsize to a condo to avoid the outside maintenance but has not found a buyer for her 1,200-square-foot clapboard bungalow after four months on the market at $240,000.

Greco held an open house Saturday to advertise a lower price, $234,900.

“Nobody showed up,” she said.

Her luck changed that afternoon, when a Florida Association of Realtors lobbyist contacted her real estate agent to see whether she would host a news conference for Crist on Monday.

She said she knows why she’s having a problem selling her home: property taxes. Greco, who bought her home in 1992, pays $620 a year in property taxes because of the 1994 Save Our Homes tax cap.

But the new owners would pay between $3,500 and $4,000, she said.

“The future homeowner would have to come up with $400 a month on top of the Florida mortgage. That’s insane.”

All homestead owners currently get a $25,000 exemption off the home’s assessed value, with annual increases in assessed value limited by Save Our Homes to the lesser of 3 percent or inflation.

If 60 percent of voters vote yes on January 29, new buyers instead will get a 75 percent exemption of the first $200,000 in value and 15 percent of the next $300,000.

For Greco’s house, that’s the difference between a taxed value of $209,900 under the current system for a new home buyer and one of $79,665 under the amendment’s so-called “super exemption.”

John Thomas, the public policy director for the Florida League of Cities, said the name of the group was misleading because the amendment would phase out Save Our Homes protections.

SOURCE: Palm Beach Post