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Guest Column

Super homestead would give Florida a chance

By PETER CLARKE
Published November 7, 2007

As a recent transplant to the Clearwater area (I moved here in August), I wanted to share a perspective on the super homestead exemption.

Let me begin at the beginning. I have had customers in the Clearwater area for 15 years and have been coming here about once a month for all that time. I thought that if I ever moved from my home in Saratoga Springs in upstate New York, this is where I would move.

One cold day last February, while looking at a $450 heating bill and reading an article about a soon-to-be-enacted 9 percent school-tax increase, I decided it was time to make a change. I made several reconnaissance and information-gathering trips and zeroed in on the Clearwater Beach area as the place I would most like to be. I started digging under the covers a bit to see what it would cost to live here.

New York is not a cheap place to live: high fuel costs, high taxes, high insurance, expensive food, out-of-control local government spending, and also, full value assessment. This means all homes are assessed periodically (about every two years) at full-market value, and taxes are based on that value, with few exceptions. The little old lady across the street who bought her home in 1965 for $19,000 and now has an assessment of $400,000 pays the same as her neighbors who bought their comparable home last week for the same $400,000 taxable value.

I'm not saying this is fair, but it is more reasonable than one person paying $1,000 in taxes and the neighbor paying $7,200 for equally valued property, as you have here in Florida.

A few facts to ponder: My property taxes in Saratoga Springs on a $500,000 home were $7,900; my taxes in Clearwater on a $410,000 townhouse are $7,135. My homeowner's insurance in Saratoga, $1,350; homeowners insurance in Clearwater, $3,100-plus. Auto insurance in Saratoga was $730 per year; in Clearwater it's $1,404.

The system in Florida (and the math) is broken, and the Florida real estate market is the recipient of the miscalculation. I understand that seniors on fixed incomes cannot just be thrown under the bus and told, "Too bad, you now have to pay the same full taxable value as your new neighbor."

I also have to tell you that Florida cannot load all the expenses of government and services on the middle class and new-resident home buyers, whom you need to live here to ensure a healthy and growing economy.

As to the nonresidents, speculators and people with very high-value property, life's not always fair - pay up. The people buying million-dollar homes have already received their tax breaks from Washington. The nonresidents don't deserve this benefit: They don't live here. The speculators need to look up the definition of the word "speculate." It is not defined as "risk-free" or "guaranteed profits."

In June, when I saw the new super homestead exemption amendment was to be presented to the public in January for a vote and that it provided protection for seniors and longstanding residents at current levels, I made the assumption that the voters of Florida were a smart bunch and would recognize this was a fair way to get new middle-class home-owners here.

I bet that the people of Florida would make a logical, thoughtful decision for themselves and for people like me who want to live here and pay reasonable taxes. The new taxes under the proposed amendment for a townhouse like mine would be about $4,000 (my neighbor's would still be under $2,000).

Do the math, folks. That would mean I could live in Florida for only a little more than it cost to be in New York. (Forget the argument about New York state income taxes; user fees here are excessive and even out in the long run. Also, New York state income taxes are deductible from your federal income tax return.)

I've made a commitment to live here and be a part of this community, to pay taxes, vote and try to be a good citizen and contributor. That can change, and I'm not just speaking about myself here. If this tax issue isn't fixed, I'll hang out for a while, enjoy the weather and work on my tan. Then I'll get the heck out of here, along with a whole bunch of other folks.

Peter Clarke is a resident of Clearwater.

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[Last modified November 6, 2007, 21:57:28]