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Message from Jim Ley on
Property Tax Reform
April 27, 2007
The serious
business of Florida property tax reform is being conducted like a
Legislative reality game show. The game host, Gov. Charlie Crist, is
watching the two contestants – the House and Senate – compete for
public approval with plans to slash property taxes. Legislators
contend that local governments have caused the property tax problem
and now the state must cut taxes because local governments have
exploited and allowed property taxes to spiral out of control.
This political rhetoric ignores a couple of realities. The biggest
reality of all – if you own a homesteaded property, the county’s
portion of the tax bill has been reduced for the last two years. In
fact, if you owned the home since 2000, you are paying the same
county taxes now as you did then. The rhetoric doesn’t tell you
that.
Every year Sarasota County government surveys our citizens to assess
their priorities and make sure we’re responding to their needs. When
we ask residents which level of government is the most responsive,
every year they say local government is more responsive than state
government – by a three-to-one margin. And when we ask which level
of government does the best job of spending tax money effectively,
residents again say local government does the best job, not state
government.
That makes sense. If you call or send an e-mail to county
government, you get a personal response and quick action. If you try
to contact the state – well, good luck.
Local government provides most of the services citizens depend on
every day. Local government operates a 911 emergency dispatch system
that can respond within minutes when residents need life-saving
attention. Local government provides fire and police protection for
lives and property. Local government provides recreational
opportunities for residents and families – whether it’s a walk on a
beach or a hike through an endangered area the county has preserved.
Local government collects your trash. It builds and maintains 80 per
cent of the roads that we drive on and that serve our businesses.
And local government protects our quality of life – by preserving
green spaces, cleaning up neighborhoods and requiring extensive
public input for proposed development.
Sarasota County, and other local governments, have known for years
that Florida’s property tax system is not just broken, it’s
inadequate and inequitable. Sarasota County can’t fix the property
tax system because the flaw is written into the Florida
Constitution.
Sarasota County, however, has responsibly and aggressively done what
it can. The county has kept operating budgets at or below the rate
of inflation for years. The county tax rate has been reduced 20 per
cent in the last five years. The Sarasota County Commission adopted
a Taxpayers Bill of Rights that formalizes its commitment to fiscal
responsibility and accountability. The commission also adopted a
plan on how the property tax system could be fixed – a plan that
would have required us to reduce the county budget by millions of
dollars. Details of this are available in the Property Tax section
of “Your Voice” on the county’s web site at www.scgov.net.
The Legislature’s reality game rhetoric has ignored the county plan
and similar tax reform ideas. The Florida House, in particular, has
wrapped personal political ambition in the flag of property tax
reform by playing to taxpayers’ self interest. To comply with that
plan, a plan that would reduce property tax revenues by 50 per cent,
we are looking at a cocktail of service reductions whose ingredients
will require us to: eliminate one-time community investments in
parks and land acquisition, cut back on social services, delay our
fire and EMS plans for years, stop all investments in SCAT service,
cut back environmental land purchases, reduce funds to the Sheriff,
stop recreational programs, halt the development of new libraries
and place popular programs like neighborhood services and street
tree programs out of reach. These changes will significantly affect
the lives of all of us.
The Florida Senate has taken a more reasoned and bi-partisan
approach – one that’s much more fiscally challenging than our
county’s proposed plan, but still reasonable. Although we would have
to redefine our plans and levels of public services, our quality of
life wouldn’t be reduced so severely.
There is a simple, unavoidable truth in property tax reform – it
comes at the cost of services everyone wants and expects. To get
equitable property tax reform – which we all want – send a letter to
your legislators or, better yet, call them and tell them you want a
balanced approach that doesn’t severely damage our quality of life.
Contact information for legislators is under “Your Voice” at
www.scgov.net. Let them know that the Senate plan achieves both
goals and is preferable.
If you would like to follow
legislation on Property Tax, Affordable Housing, Transportation
Funding or Insurance during the state legislative session, click on
the issue under the "Latest Update" tab on the bottom of any "Your
Voice" page. From there you can see bills that have been introduced
on each issue and follow them through the committee hearing and
amendment process.
Updated 4/27/07
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