As Tax Notices Arrive This Month, Homeowners Find Ugly Shock

Homeowners have every right to be angry about the property-tax notices that recently arrived in mailboxes.

For many, taxes dropped a tad, though no one heard the thud promised by Gov. Charlie Crist.

Look closely and you'll see that Crist and state lawmakers, who blasted local governments for failing to lower property taxes, actually increased the one property tax they control - a second property tax for schools.

While states traditionally meet their financial obligations to schools by spending general revenues from the sales tax, some years back the Florida Legislature quietly decided to shift this obligation onto the backs of homeowners and business owners. As a result, property owners face a second line-item for schools: a state-levied school property tax.

And at the height of hypocrisy, Crist and the Legislature this year increased that tax, called the "required local effort" for schools.

No wonder supporters are pushing so hard for Amendment 5, the state constitutional amendment drive that would eliminate this second property tax and force legislators to find the money for schools elsewhere, probably by raising the sales tax by a penny.

Supporters want a return of what should be called the "required state effort" for schools.

But the numbers behind such a tax "swap" don't balance out, and a circuit court judge found the ballot language misleading. Still, this amendment has drawn attention to a legislative sleight-of-hand that needs undoing.

And there's a second big reason why your tax bill barely budged this year, despite all the backslapping in Tallahassee.

Though your home's market value likely dropped, an obscure tax rule - called the "recapture rule" - deflated the tax savings voters expected when they passed Amendment 1 in January.

The recapture rule works like this: Even though the market value of a home protected by the Save Our Homes amendment declines, the state requires property appraisers to continue raising its taxable value if that amount is less than its fair market value.

In other words, even though your home's value dropped, your taxes will rise until your home's taxable value matches its market value.

It's blatantly wrong to increase the taxable value of homesteaded properties when market values are dropping. Homestead owners should have received every penny of the savings promised when they voted for Amendment 1, which doubled the homestead exemption from $25,000 to $50,000 and promised an average savings of between $200 and $300.

Raising taxes on a home whose value is falling violates the intent of Save Our Homes, says its author, Lee County Property Appraiser Ken Wilkinson.

But lawmakers ignored the recapture rule during the hoopla about "property-tax reform" last year. Legislation was filed in both chambers to abolish the rule and mandate decreases in assessed values when market values drop - an even better idea. But according to Wilkinson, legislative leaders "would not even give us a true hearing." And so the bills died.

State lawmakers should stop pointing fingers and paying lip service to tax reform.

If changing this rule means less revenue for governments, those entities should tighten spending even more.

Taxpayers are struggling to keep their homes, place food on the table and put gasoline in their vehicles.

The governor promised to lower taxes. He should keep his promise.