Exemptions pass House on party line vote

The bill providing "super" homestead exemptions - up to $195,000 off $500,000 in home value - just passed the House Policy and Budget Council. It was a strict party line vote. (The Senate committee approved the exemptions in similar fashion)

"You have the choice to vote for the status quo, or you have the choice to vote for relief, to give the voters the choice," said Rep. Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park.

Rep. Jack Seiler, D-Wilton Manors, said the plan is deeply flawed because it leaves a $7-billion hole in education funding over five years, with no written guarantee by the state to cover the difference. And, he noted, for many homeowners the new exemption is not as good a deal as Save Our Homes.

"You’re going to have a loss of services, that’s the one thing that’s certain out of this proposal," Seiler said.

Despite their position on the joint resolution, Democrats supported the bill setting the special election on Jan. 29. Doing so may (or may not) shield them from criticism they denied Floridians the right to weigh in on the plan. Seiler said he voted in hopes that the joint resolution will  be improved before the end of the session.

Comments

[Tax Cut Charlie]

Let the people decide whether they want to cut their own services or not. They'll have to use their tax "savings" to hire personal security guards when police officers get cut.

exemptions are DOA - they won't get a vote until November, '08 - and the GOP has known this all along.

[Rep Seiler]

I voted for the tax cuts, before I voted against them...

Good work by Marco and the House leadership for pulling together on an impossible issue. If education cut just 5% of upper management, not affecting classroom time or priorities, education would be fine anyway.

If Governor Crist would've pledged to work on whittling down the Class Size Amendment, that would save billions too

[Larry]

This is the biggest crock of what makes the grass grow green to come out of Tallahassee since the insurance fix in January. You elected those clowns, now you're going to have to lie with them.

If we just kill all the poor kids so rich white kids could go to publicly funded private schools… everything would be just fine.

This is great move on Cannon's part - Winter Park sure ain't the hood

It was set up to fail... and that's exactly what will happen.

good job guys - wait til Nov. 08, when all the kooky Dems will show up to vote for Hillary then vote the amendment down...

Where is zenator on all this?
And it won't just be kooky Dems voting it down. Repubs will never never vote to do away with Save Our Homes. But I guess that's the plan--set it up to fail, then say we tried.

You think those education bureaucrats will do away with upper management?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. My stomach hurts from lauighing so hard.

[JOC]

Say what you want, but I would like for my kids to be able to own a home without paying 10 times the property taxes as the person they live next to. Wait on perfection if you want to, I'm voting for it.

JOC

If you want your kids to own a home at all, you'll first need to make sure they get a quality education at one of our universities - then a good job to pay for it all.

VLTs, VLTs, VLTs, funny how the gap in education is the exact spread that statewide VLTs would produce.

Kudos to Ballard, McGee and company for laying the groundwork for the VLT bill during the 2008 regular session. Even Pickens was laying the predicate of alternative revenue sources in council today.

Keep passing around the VLT kool-aid and watch them drink it up.

what's the VLT?

I want to be able to apply this concept to my Stock Market Portfolio.

Whenever I by at a bad time, I want a do-over or an adjustment so I can make out just like the guy who bought at a good time.

The free market is great… unless it causes ME to loose MY money.

Love,

Old, hypocritical, rich, fat, pasty, white guys who run for public office boondoggle seats.

make that "buy"

[Paul D. Harvill]

With the smaller class size amendment mandates to the Legislature still not up-to-date,

Florida having the worst high school graduation rate in the nation,

and the second most cheaply funded public education system,

etc. etc. etc.,

I don't trust those who promise to protect education funding.

They have not earned our trust on education matters given their record.

$7,000,000,000 plus lost, taken from our children's educational needs?

Then I have become a legislative revolter.