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Right move on Save Our Homes
By Times editorial
Published April 27, 2006
The reason Florida takes such care to determine how much each home is worth is so that property taxes can be spread fairly. As key state lawmakers are now seeing, putting a thumb on that scale can easily tilt things too far. To their credit, legislative leaders are putting the brakes on an election-year race to extend the reach of a 1992 tax break called Save Our Homes. House Speaker Allan Bense told a reporter: "The numbers are staggering . . . and they're uncertain. I think it might be more responsible for us to have a first-class study that really looks at what will happen." Good for Bense and Senate leaders. Save Our Homes was the product of a disingenuous constitutional initiative that promised to keep elderly widows from being taxed out of their homes. It caps increases in home values for tax purposes at 3 percent or inflation, whichever is lower, and homes are reassessed at market value only when they are sold. But that has served mainly to shift the tax burden from waterfront mansions to modest houses and apartments. Because Save Our Homes shaves dollars off the value of homes that haven't sold recently, it is producing staggering inequities. A study approved by the Senate Ways and Means Committee on Monday puts the issue in the right context. Revenue analysts would be asked to measure the tax break against this standard: "The Florida tax system should treat individuals equitably. It should impose similar tax burdens on people in similar circumstances and should minimize regressivity." The study is to be completed next year, which means its findings would also be available to the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission. That commission is constitutionally empowered to offer voters meaningful changes to tax policy, and it should be eager to examine Save Our Homes. Lawmakers didn't create this mess, and they should avoid making it any worse. A careful study is a step in the right direction.
[Last modified April 27, 2006, 09:34:39]
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