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Politics

Property tax talks stay a secret

By ALEX LEARY
Published June 4, 2007

TALLAHASSEE - When property tax negotiations broke down more than a month ago, top lawmakers boldly predicted the kinks would be worked out before the special session even began.

All legislators would have to do, House Speaker Marco Rubio said, is show up to approve the plan June 12.

But with a week to go, few details have been released to confirm such optimism. The discussions have been almost exclusively private, and among only a handful of people.

Rubio and Senate President Ken Pruitt broke the silence Friday by releasing the outlines of an agreement to roll back local tax bases and cap future growth. They also called for super-sized homestead exemptions.

Undercutting the upbeat announcement, however, was the lack of specifics.

Property owners are just as unsure of what savings to expect, and cities and counties are still in the dark about budget cuts.

"It's a huge problem for us," Pinellas County Commissioner Susan Latvala said. "We're just in a very awkward position by not knowing what the cut is going to be."

Hernando County Commissioner Diane Rowden called the lack of information "frightening" and questioned the secrecy surrounding talks: "Why is this out of the sunshine? This is the people's business. Why can't people hear what's going on?"

Unlike city and county officials, two state lawmakers can discuss plans in private.

Rubio, R-Miami, and others contend the process is as open as it can be. The announcement Friday was intended to provide an update on those talks.

Still, none of conversations or data that led to Friday's announcement have been made public.

When talks fell apart in the regular session, Rubio and Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, tapped Rep. Dean Cannon, R-Orlando, and Sen. Daniel Webster, R-Winter Garden, to hash out a compromise.

The Republican lawmakers, respected by their Democratic counterparts, have held numerous discussions over the past month, all of them private.

Homestead exemption proposals were discussed during a three-hour public meeting on May 21 -- the only open hearing since the public talks collapsed last month -- and another is scheduled today from 1 to 6 p.m.

But the May 21 meeting amounted to a presentation of the pros and cons of the three tax exemption plans.

Nonetheless, Rubio as recently as last week insisted the process was open. "It will be very public, believe me," he said after addressing a group of people in Spring Hill.

Part of the issue, he added, is that legislators have yet to decide how much to cut. "We don't know what those numbers are yet."

Legislative staff members have crunched numbers on the three options, which provide a homestead exemption based on a percentage of home value.

Public record requests for the numbers by the St. Petersburg Times have been refused on the basis that there is no pending legislation for the tax proposals.

Numbers for the property tax proposal announced Friday are not available because they do not exist.

Rep. Dan Gelber, the Democratic leader in the House, said the lack of firm information from Republicans is troubling.

"I don't even have a plan to look at at this point," he said. "My colleagues are throwing out percentages without telling people what the associated costs are.

"You've got to tell the people what the impact is -- otherwise you're playing with Monopoly money."

Staff writers Steve Bousquet and Asjylyn Loder contributed to this report.

[Last modified June 4, 2007, 01:58:18]