by Michele Gillis
Staff Writer
After the latest Florida legislative session, Realtors have a lot to celebrate.
During his yearly rounds to local Realtor associations for his legislative update, John Sebree, vice president of public policy for the Florida Realtors, explained the numerous victories to the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors last month at the Jacksonville Marriott.
“It was a challenging environment in which to advance our agenda, that’s for sure,” said the lobbyist. “We worked diligently to engage freshman legislators on our overarching goal, which was to stimulate the housing market, and therefore the Florida economy. Realtors deserve a tremendous amount of credit for educating legislators about our issues, local market conditions and challenges faced by the industry and property owners. We have much to celebrate.”
The Florida Realtor legislative priorities for the 2011 session included affordable housing, insurance, property tax, S.A.F.E. Act, septic tanks and short sales.
“For every one of our talking points, I have something positive to report on,” said Sebree, adding that past session was “pretty crazy.”
“There were a lot of new elected officials in the state capital, both lawmakers and cabinet who were hearing our issues for the first time. No one knew how it was going to be to work with a brand new governor who had not come from a political background and hadn’t really been involved in policy issues that many of us are involved in,” said Sebree. “He came from a business background, so that was very interesting. We also had a Senate president who is looking for our support in running for U.S. Senate.”
His message to all: until the real estate market bounces back, there will not be a strong economy in Florida.
“They are going to continue to stare at a budget deficit every time they go into session,” he said. “The toughest thing we are going to have to overcome is a budget deficit unless they do things to get real estate moving in Florida. That becomes the theme of everything we work on. Every issue in our talking points booklet brings it back to economic development and how it will create jobs in Florida and how it will bring our economy back.”
There were 2,186 bills filed this session; 245 general bills and nine joint resolutions passed. There was an emphasis on fiscal accountability due to a nearly $4 billion budget deficit and no federal stimulus funds to help this year.
Sebree said that the good things included approving an amendment to the Florida Constitution that would give tax relief for non-homesteaded property owners and first-time homesteaders, the cap on the Sadowski Trust Fund was scrapped and a bill that would attempt to stabilize the insurance market.
If the amendment passes, there will now be tax relief for non-homesteaders and first-time buyers.
“If approved by voters in November 2012, the proposal would reduce the yearly assessment cap on non-homestead property from 10 percent to 5 percent,” said Sebree. “It would also give anyone who hasn’t had a homestead exemption in Florida for three years a property tax discount of 50 percent of the home’s assessed value, not to exceed the median home price in that county. This additional first-time homestead owner exemption phases out for the property owner over five years while their Save Our Homes is phasing in.”
Sebree said this measure also allows the Florida legislature to prohibit assessment increases when property values fall.
“We are so excited about this because it will affect every community the same,” said Sebree. “We think this is going to be incredibly fair and talk about spurring the economy.”
The Sadowski Trust Fund cap is now scrapped.
“It took five years and vigilant lobbying on the part of Florida Realtors and members of the Sadowski Housing Coalition, but the Legislature finally voted to remove the $243 million cap on the housing trust funds,” said Sebree. “This victory shouldn’t be taken lightly. Several times throughout the session, it appeared the trust funds would be eliminated altogether.”
This year, the Florida Housing Finance Corporation has $64 million for state and local housing programs.
Another amendment approved for voters to consider would provide property tax relief for wounded veterans if it is passed on the November ballot.
“Currently, disabled veterans who were Florida residents when they entered military service qualify for the combat-related disabled veterans’ ad valorem tax discount on homestead property,” said Sebree. “The new bill goes before voters in November 2012 to extend this property tax benefit to any disabled combat veteran residing in Florida, regardless of where they lived when they entered military service.”
Tax cuts for small businesses were another issue.
“A $30 million tax cut for small businesses received little opposition,” said Sebree. “The bill boosts the exemption to the corporate income tax by increasing the exemption from $5,000 to $25,000. That amounts to a cut of roughly $1,100 per business.
“More importantly, many small businesses will not have to pay any corporate income taxes. Proponents praised the measure as a way to stimulate growth and create jobs, and as a step in the right direction of an even bigger rollback of corporate income taxes sought by the governor.”
Challenging property tax assessments can be tricky, but a new bill will ease the financial burden of challenging property tax assessments.
Sebree said so many property owners are challenging their assessments that it has resulted in a number of school boards being unable to forecast their budgets. As originally filed, this bill required property owners who appealed their assessment to pay 75 percent of the appraised value. Florida Realtors helped to amend the bill to allow owners to make a good faith payment during the appeal process if it extends beyond April 1 of the next year.
There were more than 24 bills filed offering a range of solutions to the current insurance crisis, including a proposal to raise Citizen premiums by up to 25 percent.
“In the end, the big insurance bill that passed seeks to rein in the areas that cause premiums to rise and discourage voluntary market insurers from doing business in Florida,” said Sebree. “Insurers must continue to offer sinkhole coverage, but can limit coverage to homes and no other structures on people’s property, including garages and pools. Insurers may also call for an inspection of property before issuing sinkhole coverage.”
Sebree said this bill will also allow insurers to initially pay actual cash value for repairs to dwellings.
“Florida is one of only a few states that require insurers to pay replacement claims upfront regardless of whether the insured items are replaced or not,” he said. “Insurers may require that repairs be made before fully paying a sinkhole claim. Claims for loss from sinkholes must be made within two years, and three years for hurricanes.”
This bill also allows insurers to raise rates by up to 15 percent to cover their increases in reinsurance costs, but state insurance regulators would still have to approve any increase.
A new bill affects licensure requirements of home inspectors. It changes the initial requirements for certain persons acting as home inspectors today and removes language enacted last year that allowed Division 1 contractors to perform both the home inspection and make repairs.
The Florida S.A.F.E. Mortgage Licensing Act was changed to include the same language contained in a federal act that allows Florida real estate licensees to list and sell short sales without having to first obtain additional licensure under Chapter 494 of the Florida Statutes.
Another bill allows sales associates to catch a business tax break. This bill states that local governments that were not collecting business taxes from sales associates on Oct. 13, 2010, may not do so in the future. Local governments that were collecting business taxes from sales associates on that date are not impacted.