Senate candidate Crist signs anti-tax pledge

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Charlie Crist has signed the national Americans for Tax Reform Taxpayer Protection Pledge. By doing so Crist promises to "oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and/or businesses; and ... oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates."

The governor had already signed (as have Bill McCollum and Marco Rubio) the state version of the ATR pledge, to "oppose and veto any and all efforts to increase taxes." We'll see how that works out with the $1 cigarette tax increase passed by the legislature (background here).

“Americans need leaders committed to fiscal responsibility and pro-growth economic policies. Therefore, I commend Governor Crist for signing the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. Signing and abiding by the pledge is a clear indication of a candidate’s dedication to fiscal conservatism,” said Grover Norquist, president of ATR.

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Is property tax plan the answer for ailing market?

The property tax plan voters will decide on next year might save first-time home buyers $1,500 or more, an analysis shows, raising hopes among lawmakers that it could reinvigorate an ailing housing market that is vital to the Florida economy.

Backers of the proposal -- held up by Gov. Charlie Crist and legislative leaders Friday as one of the few highlights in a grim session -- are counting on the allure of lower tax bills to gain the required 60 percent voter approval in November 2010. The break would apply to anyone who buys a home in 2010, and affect taxes the next year.

''It's going to turn renters into buyers,'' predicted Rep. Carl Domino, the Jupiter Republican who worked on the plan and may try to tweak it next session. (story here)

New homebuyer tax break gets sudden life

Proving the truism that nothing is dead until Sine die, legislation providing a large tax exemption for new homebuyers has been given sudden life in the Senate. The bill, SJR 532, was yanked from several committees and put on today's special order calendar.

The Senate plan would provide an additional homestead exemption worth 25 percent of just value, up to $100,000 of value. The proposal would also reduce a nonhomestead assessment cap to 5 percent from 10 percent - a carrot to get the needed 60 percent voter approval in November 2010.

Last week, Sen. Evelyn Lynn said the bill was all but dead, after leaders said it was too costly. But Gov. Charlie Crist's office, Realtors and others worked hard to get it moving. The House has already passed the lower cap, but has not taken up the homebuyer exemption.

A "presumption of correctness" bill also got new life today in the Senate. Similar legislation, sponsored by Rep. Carlos Lopez-Cantera of Miami, passed the House 110-3 on Monday.

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House passes 5 percent assessment cap

After some entertaining procedural wrangling, the House unanimously passed a proposed constitutional amendment that would lower the existing nonhomestead assessment cap to 5 percent from 10 percent.

But sponsor Carl Domino failed to marry the plan with a new exemption for first-time home buyers. The Jupiter Republican has complained about the two ideas being split (the Senate has them together) and tried to amend the bill (HB 7057). Democratic Rep. Jim Waldman objected that it substantially changed the scope and, after deliberation, rules chairman Bill Galvano agreed.

Domino then made a motion to waive the rules and take up the amendment. He needed unanimous support. It failed by voice vote, prompting Domino to take the vote to the board. A string of red "no" votes from Democrats faded to green "yes" until there was only one: Waldman.

The Senate is unlikely to advance either plan.

Poll: voters split on higher fees vs taxes, dig Crist

A new Quinnipiac poll (moe +/-  2.7 percent) shows Gov. Charlie Crist with a 66 percent approval rating, and overwhelming support - 70 percent - for socking it to smokers with a tax increase. By 79-17 percent voters oppose extending term limits for legislators. More from the release:

"There may be some GOP activists who think Gov. Charlie Crist isn't conservative enough, but they aren't striking a chord around the state," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "Across America, an awful lot of governors are seeing their approval ratings dip as the recession requires higher taxes and cuts in government programs, but Teflon Charlie keeps chugging along with numbers that most of his fellow governors would die for."

"Gov. Crist's approval rating remains not just lofty but lofty across the board. In fact his disapproval among Republicans, although small, is worse than his disapproval from Democrats and independent voters. He is also the unusual politician who has no gender gap," said Brown.

Amendment 6 leaves some wanting more property tax relief

Cory Offutt walked into the voting booth thinking he was giving himself a property tax break.

"It was awesome," the marine towing operator in Miami said of a so-called working waterfront proposal that passed with 71 percent of the vote statewide in November.

Amendment 6, as it turns out, does not help Biscayne Towing and Salvage or other businesses like it because of the limited definition of working waterfront that voters approved.

But as the Legislature drafts the implementing language — the exact wording that goes into law taking effect in 2010 — a little-noticed but persistent lobbying effort is under way to expand its reach.

"Look at this," said Democratic Rep. Luis Garcia of Miami Beach, poking his finger into a photo of a tug pulling a cargo container up the Miami River. "That's a working waterfront to a T."

Whatever happens, this much is clear: Sizable property tax relief remains frustratingly elusive for many businesses, even as values have come down in a cooler market. (story here)

Poll: 59% disapprove of legislature's budget work

The conservative group Americans for Prosperity has a Florida poll showing: 53 percent of voters believe state spending is too high, and 59 percent disapprove of their state legislature’s handling of budget issues. And lower income Floridians aren't so keen on rich Floridians paying higher taxes: 61.5 percent of respondents earning under $30,000 rejected the idea of raising taxes on others.

The Feb. 2-5 telephone poll of 607 registered voters by Voter/Consumer Research has a margin of error of +/- 4 percent. It has some mighty odd regions, though, like West Palm/Jacksonville and Gainesville/Fort Myers/Tallahassee.

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Nonhomestead property tax cap equals big savings

A proposal to lower the nonhomestead property tax assessment cap to 5 percent from 10 percent would strip $100 million from local government coffers in 2011, according to estimates state economists released Sunday.

By 2013, the savings (or hit, depending on one's viewpoint) would be $266 million.

A second plan calling for a sizable homestead exemption for new homebuyers would save $120 million in 2011, assuming voters approve the measure. By 2015, the savings would be $358 million. Under the plan, first-time homebuyers would get an exemption worth 50 percent of the market value of the home, with the benefit gradually reduced over the next four years.

House committee gives push to prop tax amendments

If the state's flailing economy was to give legislators any pause about embedding permanent tax cuts into the state Constitution, there was no sign of it in the House Military and Local Affairs committee today. It passed along three constitutional amendments that would:

* Give first-time homeowners a one-time property tax exemption that would disappear over five years;

* Expand the Save Our Homes-styled cap on commercial and non-residential property taxes from 10 percent to five percent

* Cap all property taxes at annual increases of 1.35 percent.

The concerns of local governments, particularly small, fiscally-strapped counties were easily dismissed.

Bennett doubts tax cap advances this year

Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, predicted today that two controversial tax cap proposals will not be passed by the Legislature this year. Rather, the ideas will be hashed out in committee and taken up next year, he said. The ideas include the TABOR or "smart cap" idea pushed by Sen. Mike Haridopolos and Bennett's own proposal to restrict taxes to 1.35 percent of the taxable value of any parcel of property. Below, he discusses the challenges of the smart cap. (Video by Alex Leary.)

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