by David Ball
Staff Writer
Tuesday’s vote is over, and the controversial property tax amendment referendum passed with the required 60 percent vote, receiving 64 percent approval state wide.
But despite Gov. Charlie Crist and other proponents claiming the amendment will be an essential part of a turnaround to spark Florida’s stalled real estate market and ramp up the economy as a whole, one group, Florida TaxWatch, isn’t so sure.
“I think it could have a short-term positive impact,” said TaxWatch Director of Tax Research Kurt Wenner. “But the longer-term impact we believe would be negative. Amendment One isn’t right for the economy because what it does is continue this tax system that is hurting Florida’s economy, making the effects worse.”
The economy — of Florida and the country — has taken center stage in stump speeches and debates by presidential candidates and by current President Bush in his Monday night State of The Union address, touting his proposed economic stimulus package to give between $300 and $1,200 back to taxpayers (of which TaxWatch is also skeptical).
“People raise legitimate concerns about the stimulus package,” said Wenner. “Is it going to affect our economy or help foreign economies? We buy so much of our stuff overseas, and there’s so much foreign investment backing our (national) debt.”
The day before Tuesday’s vote, TaxWatch released a chart of Florida’s key economic indicators over the last seven years (see below). Nearly all of them show improvement even during the real estate slowdowns in 2006 and 2007. The biggest negative trend was the rise in unemployment from 2006 to 2007.
But with passage of the amendment, Wenner said Florida residents could eventually see those positive numbers begin to fall, as the tax burden slowly shifts away from homesteaded property owners.
“The burden would move to non-homesteaded properties, negatively impacting businesses, snow birds, landlords and tenants, and that’s not good for the economy,” said Wenner. “But even if it passed or didn’t, we still have a messed up system and it needs to be addressed.”
Wenner said with how controversial this amendment was, it will be difficult to pass something to help balance the tax burden on non-homesteaded properties.
“We think it’s gong to be real difficult to truly reform the tax system to even the playing field now,” he said. “It’s going to be really tough to come up with another constitutional amendment on the non-homesteaded side that will gain 60 percent approval.”
Florida Economic Statistics Chart