Ups and Downs since Black Tuesday Florida’s Taxation and Budget Reform Committee (TBRC) is empowered to place proposals/Amendments to be voted on by Florida’s taxpayers at November’s ballot. The TBRC passed a proposal to replace the school portion ($8B) of property taxes with a 1% increase in sales tax (about $4B), and the shortfall to […]

Black Tuesday in Florida! This morning (February 1, 2008) the Miami Herald trumpets that “Crist Budget May Lead to Tax Hike”  . Was it not only last Tuesday that Governor Crist (you know the one who promised Floridians that taxes and insurance will drop like a rock) promised that a YES on Amendment 1 will […]

3rd Court Challenge in Past Year to Florida’s Discriminatory Property Tax System On 1-11-08 another suit was filed challenging Florida’s property tax system. For the first time, however, suit was filed in Federal Court. In 2007 two separate suits (one by non-resident non-homesteaded out of state property owners and the other by homesteaded property owners) […]

Broader Legal Front Against Florida’s Two-tier Property Taxes Lots of new developments on the legal front, but before I get to the legal update, I came across an interesting article by John Brady from Madison, Connecticut writing in the NYT’s “Retire the property-tax” “The property tax is a concept whose better days are behind it. […]

Florida property tax reform is a pipe dream – Screws tightened again on part-time residents! Florida’s Legislature pulls the rug from under real property tax reform, while further off-loading out-of-control expenditures onto part-time resident, out-of-state property owners. Amazingly, Florida’s Legislators placed on the January 29th ballot a constitutional amendment of the following: (1) doubling the […]

A Rant on Florida Property Taxes (October 21, 2007 view) I called it a “soap opera”. One of the Florida legislature members called it a “toga party”. The Florida legislature is once again in special session on property tax tinkering or more correctly, offloading taxes from the already much advantaged homesteaders on to non-homesteaded property […]

Legal Challenge of Florida’s Discriminatory Property Tax System- An Update Up to about a year ago, there was no interest by any law firm to launch a legal challenge to the Save-Our-Homes Amendment In fact I remember Winnie Nelon, one of the early leaders of the tax reform groups, being quoted that her organization has […]

Dear Mr. Harper, Re: Discrimination Against Canadians in Florida We need your help to explore possible Canadian government action to counter the outrageous two-tier discriminatory property tax system in Florida. At the end of this note I have a list of actions the Government of Canada can take to secure equitable treatment for Canadian snowbirds […]

Florida plans to continue plucking its snowbirds! After months of studies and negotiations the agreement tabled last weekend may actually aggravate condition of snowbirds: 1. Out-of-control spending continues! The much discussed expenditures “rollback” to 2001 or 2003 was abandoned to a “hold the line” at 2006-2007 level and perhaps cut 3, 5, 7 or 9% […]

The Property Tax Crisis in Paradise – Florida Welcomes(?) Snowbirds When I purchased a condo in Florida in 2000, one of my neighbors told me that I just bought a piece of paradise. And sure enough, since becoming a Snowbird after my retirement I’ve been enjoying the escape from the Canadian winters. What I did […]