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Tax talks break down

With the House and Senate deadlocked over a rollback, negotiators step back.

By ALEX LEARY
Published April 27, 2007

TALLAHASSEE - Property tax negotiations came to an indefinite standstill Thursday, a day after House Speaker Marco Rubio went on Miami radio and suggested he would oversee a citizen petition to advance his own plan.

"We need a breather," said Sen. Mike Haridopolos, the Melbourne Republican leading talks for the Senate. "It might be all weekend, it might be until the end of the session.

"We just need to take a step back and study each other's numbers and understand the impact they will have to taxpayers and to our local governments."

Gently goading the legislature to act, Gov. Charlie Crist officially announced his own plan to cut taxes by $34-billion over five years by rolling back property tax bases to 2003, doubling the $25,000 homestead exemption and allowing people to carry their Save Our Homes benefit to new dwellings, among other ideas.

The governor's planned savings fall between the deeper cuts the House seeks and the more modest Senate approach.

Despite the gulf, Crist said he was optimistic a deal could emerge. "As each day continues to pass," Crist said, "there is more opportunity for goodness to occur, for an agreement to be reached, because there's more pressure."

Speaking on a Miami radio show Wednesday night, Rubio criticized Crist's plan as insignificant.

Crist later chalked the comments up to Rubio's passion for the subject.

Rubio also said if nothing worthwhile happens, he would help with a petition drive to allow voters to decide how to change the tax structure.

Rubio wants to eliminate property taxes on primary homes and replace some of the billions in lost revenue with an increased sales tax.

But the Senate is flatly opposed to the idea, calling the sales tax regressive. Crist has said it is not feasible.

"This Florida Senate, we're not going to increase taxes," said Senate President Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie.

Pruitt met with several mayors, including Clearwater's Frank Hibbard and St. Petersburg's Rick Baker, and said they should expect cuts, but "I don't want to lay off police officers, and I don't want to lay off firefighters."

Rubio, who is already backed by several antitax groups, said he would get involved with a petition if lawmakers enact a "Tallahassee special" - which is "something called reform that isn't reform."

He said he is hopeful something meaningful can be accomplished in the next eight days, and insisted he was not wedded to the sales tax plan as long as deep cuts are achieved.

But he also took the opportunity to compare average savings under his plan and the others. He used the example of Eduardo Burkhart, a Palm Beach man who appeared with Crist at the news conference Thursday.

Under the House plan, Rubio claimed, Burkhart would save at least $2,371; under Crist's plan, $1,200 and the Senate's, $245.

Alex Leary can be reached at aleary@sptimes.com or 850 224-7263.

[Last modified April 27, 2007, 01:00:09]