Florida homeowner tax bill

[OKW Lover]

I think the only fair way to tax a home if it is based on original purchase price plus any major improvements, completely ignoring market price. This would mean that the person who has been in their house for decades and now has no kids in school would pay the least, while the newcomers, probably younger with school age kids, would pay the most.

What about the empty nesters who decide to downsize or move to a different location. They would be hit very hard.

 

[airjay75]

I looked into this a bit more. While Orange County would probably be ok because they have 30K commercial properties & 3K industrial properties, my residential community would lose 56% of our tax revenue. so the plan is to impose a fire department fee. A law enforcement fee is illegal. In my humble opinion this is nothing more than a shell game to make one single individual look like a hero. I’ll pass … put me down as a “no”.

That confirms what I was starting to think. Why impose a one size fits all on every local government as to whether a particular type of tax is out of bounds? Why not give counties flexibility as to which taxes are the best for their particular county? As you suggest, this could work well for some counties but not others.

But, we worked county by county to help local leaders come up with the best tax mix for their individual circumstances doesn’t make headlines like we eliminated property taxes for all Florida residents.

Like so much of tax policy across the political spectrum, it’s driven more by what’s going to look good in a fundraising letter or an election ad.

 

[mkatsy]

That confirms what I was starting to think. Why impose a one size fits all on every local government as to whether a particular type of tax is out of bounds? Why not give counties flexibility as to which taxes are the best for their particular county? As you suggest, this could work well for some counties but not others.

But, we worked county by county to help local leaders come up with the best tax mix for their individual circumstances doesn’t make headlines like we eliminated property taxes for all Florida residents.

Like so much of tax policy across the political spectrum, it’s driven more by what’s going to look good in a fundraising letter or an election ad.

Omg … I just realized that a “fire fee” probably won’t be considered a “tax” and therefore won’t be covered under the 3% homestead tax cap that we currently enjoy. So this change could potentially impact me MORE than just leaving things status quo. Now I’m mad too …off to get my pitch fork and torches from storage.

 

[RivShore]

What about the empty nesters who decide to downsize or move to a different location. They would be hit very hard.

I am actually in that group! We had to buy the house that fit our budget including taxes.
Maybe some senior exemptions could help, but we really need to know how they are going to make up for the lost revenue.

 

[RivShore]

I've been assured by every native New Jerseyian that you do not tip them

True, true and true!!!!

 

[RivShore]

Wouldn’t they have to double the sales tax to compensate for the loss in revenue?

When this idea first came up last year, I did some back of the napkin calculations and I came up with a little less than the doubling of sales tax, from 7%, to make up for lost property tax revenue. But I had assumed that all properties would qualify and all property tax would be eliminated, neither of those are now true so it would be less, maybe closer to 10%. But these were just wild guesses on a napkin so who knows...