{"id":14615,"date":"2012-11-01T15:01:54","date_gmt":"2012-11-01T19:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=14615"},"modified":"2012-11-01T15:01:56","modified_gmt":"2012-11-01T19:01:56","slug":"school-groups-oppose-fiscal-micro-management-of-amendment-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/11\/01\/school-groups-oppose-fiscal-micro-management-of-amendment-4\/","title":{"rendered":"School Groups Oppose “Fiscal Micro-Management” of Amendment 4"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

grevillea \/ Flickr<\/p>

Amendment 4 would change property tax laws for commercial properties, rentals and second homes.<\/p><\/div>\n

Property taxes are complicated, and school officials are worried Amendment 4 will make them more so.<\/p>\n

It’s why they’re opposing the amendment even though schools are not included in the change.<\/p>\n

Amendment 4 is one of a handful of ballot questions intended to lower property tax bills. As with all amendments, it must be approved by 60 percent of those voting.<\/p>\n

The amendment would give first-time homebuyers an exemption equal to half the home’s taxable value, up to the median price of a home in the county. The exemption would then be phased out over the next five years.<\/p>\n

The change would also cut the maximum increase in taxable value on commercial property, rentals and second homes to 5 percent from 10 percent.<\/p>\n

The changes would lower statewide property tax collections by $1.7 billion over the next four years<\/a>, according to Florida Association of Counties estimates.<\/p>\n

Again, schools are exempted from nearly all of the changes — though they might be affected by later legislation.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Amendment 4 is getting a big push from Florida real estate agents who say it will help jump-start real estate sales and construction<\/a>. Supporters have spent more than $4 million to convince voters to approve Amendment 4.<\/p>\n

Florida Tax Watch argues Amendment 4 would create jobs and boost state gross domestic product and personal income.<\/p>\n

Local governments are opposing the measure because it would mean cuts to services or unpopular tax increases — to be pushed on to existing Florida homeowners who have owned their homes for years. Hillsborough County, for instance, says it would lose between $6.8 million and $8.8 million the first year<\/a> according to the Tampa Tribune<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Florida School Boards Association says Amendment 4 makes a complicated property tax system even more convoluted.<\/p>\n

“This is fiscal micro-management of local governments by the state that is contrary to
\nthe tenets of local control,” the group wrote in its talking points on the amendment<\/a>. “Rather than directly tackling the inequities in Florida\u2019s tax structure, this amendment just makes them worse.”<\/p>\n

You can read the ballot question and legislation here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A ‘yes’ vote means you want to approved the property tax changes.<\/p>\n

A ‘no’ vote means you want to keep the existing tax rules.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Property taxes are complicated, and school officials are worried Amendment 4 will make them more so. It’s why they’re opposing the amendment even though schools are not included in the change. Amendment 4 is one of a handful of ballot questions intended to lower property tax bills. As with all amendments, it must be approved […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":14616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[758,753,501,759],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14615"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14615"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14623,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14615\/revisions\/14623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}