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SHERRI DAYSouth Tampa homeowners sitting on gold mines risk one big drawback if they move within the county. It's called the golden handcuffs syndrome.
SOUTH TAMPA - Sherrie Heinz's dream house is in Oakford Park. It has two bedrooms, a large living room, a formal dining room, an eat-in kitchen and a front porch.
The piece de resistance?
A big back yard where her 4-year-old grandson can run and play.
At $159,000, the price is right. But Heinz can't buy it.
The office manager can afford the mortgage payment but not the property taxes. "I would have loved it, but there's just no way," said Heinz, 57, who wanted to leave her townhouse near Parkland Estates because it has no back yard.
Even if she sold her house for $140,000 and bought a new one for the same price, her taxes would double because she would lose the benefit of the tax cap on her old place. Heinz is essentially trapped in South Tampa.
Escalating property values in Hillsborough County hav e spawned an environment ripe for sellers who want to log big profits. But try to move within much of the county or, in some cases, just across the street, and brace for what could be a sharp increase in property taxes.
From Tampa's toniest neighborhoods to its blue-collar section, residents increasingly gripe about rising property taxes, particularly in South Tampa, where home values skyrocketed in the past decade. A homeowner can generally estimate annual taxes by subtracting exemptions from the market value of the home and multiplying that number by the millage rate.
The Florida Save our Homes Act, commonly known as Amendment 10, took effect in 1995. It caps the annual increase in taxes for homesteaded properties at 3 percent. Politicians designed the law to protect homeowners from being taxed out of their homes, but critics say it produced an unforeseen byproduct: hesitancy among would-be buyers.
In Heinz's case, Amendment 10 guarantees significant savings if she stays put. She bought her home for $47,000 in 1994. Based on the purchase price, she pays about $650 a year in property taxes.
But for her dream house, even with homestead and widow's exemptions, Heinz's tax bill would likely be $3,000 a year, based on the purchase price. Developers call it the golden handcuffs syndrome.
"It's a good situation if you're happy in your current home, but it does provide a disincentive to move up," said John Sample, a South Tampa custom home builder. "I hear this all the time. People say to me, "I would love to have you build a new house for me, but I can't afford the new property taxes.' "
The tax affects potential home buyers of every stripe. Empty-nesters say it's cheaper to remain in sprawling South Tampa homes than to buy waterfront condos. Families interested in a lateral move to another neighborhood for better schools or shorter commutes often think twice. Neighbors salivating over the house next door should prepare to pay for their envy.
Gary C. Brown did.
Last year, he built a new house across the street from his Davis Islands home, which he bought 20 years ago. His annual property tax bill rose from $3,000 to $12,000.
But Brown has no complaints.
"All of my neighbors tell me that I was nuts to even think about moving because I gave up such a huge tax advantage," Brown said. "I weighed the benefits against the negatives. The long-term appreciation of the new property will put me in a better position than where I was, even though I'm paying a lot more in taxes."
Brown, who builds multimillion-dollar custom homes, is a tax crusader a la Robin Hood. He wants lawmakers to repeal Amendment 10 and tax homeowners on the current market value of their property. It's only fair, Brown says, that people who own more expensive houses pay more in taxes, regardless of how long they have owned a home.
"Do the new-home communities need a lot of tax money to support their infrastructure?" Brown asked, referring to places like Brandon and New Tampa, where homeowners often pay more taxes than longtime South Tampa homeowners. Brown doesn't think so.
"It's all brand-new, and it's all built to today's standards."
Brown thinks homeowners who live in newly developed areas and pay premium taxes foot more than their share of the county's tax bill. Longtime homeowners protected by the Amendment 10 cap pay less, even though many live in neighborhoods that need significant infrastructure upgrades, Brown said.
"Who needs that money?" asked Brown, who writes about the subject for the Davis Islands Community News. "The people in South Tampa, where it's flooding all the time, where the roads are falling apart."
Finding another way to configure property taxes also tops the priority lists of some Florida politicians. This year, Rep. Carl Domino, R-West Palm Beach, introduced a resolution that would allow homeowners to transfer their Amendment 10 tax rates and homestead exemption to a new homesteaded property of equal or lesser value. The resolution stalled in committee, but Domino plans to reintroduce the measure if voters re-elect him in November.
In January, a new state law will require real estate agents to alert home buyers of their new taxes. The step will reduce surprises when TRIM notices, which estimate upcoming property taxes, land in homeowners' mailboxes.
"We're gratified because we're the ones to get all the calls," said Warren Weathers, Hillsborough County's chief deputy property appraiser. "People have actually been crying on the phone when they'd gotten their TRIM notice because it hit them out of the blue."
Dennis Johnson, a South Tampa land developer, offers cautionary advice to potential South Tampa home buyers.
"You don't buy the Mercedes if you can't afford the gas," he said. "I've actually told that to some of my clients. You're coming in here and you want to build a million-dollar house, don't complain about paying $25,000 a year in taxes."
As for Heinz, she gave up looking for a house in South Tampa last year. She scratched Brandon and New Tampa, too. Six months ago, she stopped her search.
"I'm over it," she said, sitting on her front porch this week. "The frustration was just too much. I'll stay here unless I become independently wealthy."
Sherri Day can be reached at 226-3405 or sday@sptimes.com