Saturday, May 5, 2007

Sorry, Charlie: No Florida property tax relief yet

Florida Governor Charlie Christ's first legislative session has ended without any sign of property tax relief in the immediate future. A special session has been called for June, but consensus here is that not much will come from it. The best most lawmakers think they can agree on in that session would be a roll-back of property tax rates and a cap on them rising. Better than nothing.

But any real reform will have to wait...perhaps for a while. The House and Senate cannot come to an agreement on what is the responsible solution to Florida's property tax problem. Lawmakers are citing a desire to cross the t's and dot the i's properly this time. Once they do agree, or at least come to a compromise, voters would have their say. If lawmakers can't come together on it this June, this may not happen until November 2008.