Why Voting YES on Amendment 1 is an Alarming Band-Aid for Palm Harbor Home Owners
January 16th, 2008 categories: Property Taxes & Insurance
Voting Yes on January 29th for Florida’s Property Tax “Reform” via Amendment 1 is almost like those stories we here where the wife goes back to her husband after he’s abused her a couple of times. He says he’s sorry, promises to do better, and then he just beats her up again. 
Wikipedia defines a pyramid scheme as a non-sustainable business model that involves the exchange of money primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, usually without any product or service being delivered. It has been known to come under many guises”. Amendment 1 is that - a guise.
Folks, we’re being duped again.
Everyone should pay their equitable fair share of property tax based on current property values. However, with the Current Save Our Homes Amendment in place, most Pinellas home owners are being taxed unfairly. It’s just not right that a family that just relocated here from Ohio should have to pay twice as much tax as his neighbor next door in the exact same house who’s lived here for 15 years. Under the current system, if you’ve lived here a long time you’re a member of the “good old boys club” and don’t have to pay your fair share. Why does anybody want to move here?! And now’s not the time to tell me about the fabulous weather or how fabulous Caladessi Island is - that’s not the point.
As a Realtor faced with the realities that 2007 delivered in terms of a downturn in business, it was my first inclination to get excited about the tax “portability” law that will allow tax homestead owners of accumulated tax savings of $500,000 to their next homestead anywhere in the state within 2 years.
Sounds good, but we’re really doing is putting a band-aid on the problem. In another 5 years we’ll be back in even worse shape - and new homeowners in the state are going to be mad as hell about the inequities - or worse yet, won’t buy that Ozona, FL home after all.
What’s the answer? A fair system of taxation that eliminates the Save Our Homes program altogether. The Babalu Blog’s posts are pretty radical, but their Florida’s Amendment 1 Whitewash is a must-read.
And while many Pinellas home owner opponents are citing a cut in government services as a reason to say no, as is the case in the The Buzz on Tampa Bay Politics, that’s not my concern here.
What’s got my goat is that most of my fellow Realtors are running around with their blinders on spouting on about how the increased homestead exemption to $50,000 in Amendment 1 is going to be the end-all and spur the market back into action. Oh yeah - and Oprah’s not getting fat again. Uh-huh.
Give me a break - and I’m probably going to piss of few of my peers off here - but I’m finding out that most Realtors just care about immediate money in their wallets and not the long-term health of Florida’s economy.
I’ve heard it all from their mouths “yeah, Amendment 1 doesn’t go far enough, but we have to take what we can get now or nothing will ever happen in Tallahassee”. Get me my airline sickness bag now, please.
And the 25,000 tangible personal property exemption for businesses is a joke. It’s a drop in the bucket. And the 10% annual assessment cap on non-commercial, rental and vacation homes starting in 2009? A 10% cap? You’ve got to be kidding me? If you knew your taxes were going to go up 10% a year on your vacation Crystal Beach, FL home while everyone else in town was paying only 3% and probably much less, would you buy a home here?
Yes, I’d like it if we sold more Palm Harbor Luxury homes this year, but I know we will because of our hard work, marketing and networking - not because of another Tallahassee feel-good Band-Aid. I was excited to see that Lenny Gurvich - a fellow Keller Williams blogger out of Tampa - agreed in his Charlie’s in The Hood!. Hey Lenny - thanks for the good laugh - needed that!
Voting No. on Amendment 1 is the only way to send a real message to Tallahassee.
Vote No, and Vote Often. Sorry… couldn’t resist. Having chad flashbacks…
If you’re looking to buy or sell Real Estate in Pinellas County (Tampa Bay), Florida – Give us a Call today at (727)366-0324 or...Contact Us!
