DeFosset knows a little about property taxes

By SCOTT BARANCIK
Published July 31, 2006

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DeFosset knows taxes

Gov. Jeb Bush has chosen Tampa businessman Don DeFosset to chair a new committee on property-tax reform.

DeFosset, 57, should know. Last year, the retired chairman and CEO of Tampa's Walter Industries paid $39,404 in taxes on a 6,100-square-foot condo along Tampa's fashionable Bayshore Boulevard, public records show.

DeFosset's tax burden is likely to grow more slowly in the future.

He paid $1.8-million for the four-bedroom, 6-bath condo in 2002, but he didn't apply for a homestead exemption on it until January.