|
|
The Florida League of Cities supports a tax structure that is fair and equitable, is competitively neutral and allows municipalities the flexibility to provide adequate services in their communities. In addition, the League supports simplifying and stabilizing Florida’s state and local revenue structure in a manner that provides tax fairness for both businesses and citizens of our state. However, the League opposes arbitrary caps on property assessments, municipal expenditures or municipal revenues.
As such, the Florida League of Cities will support legislation that:
• Does not restrict a municipality’s ability to set millage rates to correspond to a community’s desired levels of services;
• Provides state financial assistance, in a revenue-neutral manner, to impacted local governments to allow for property tax adjustments without reductions in municipal levels of services, if exemptions or changes to property tax assessment criteria are implemented statewide;
• Authorizes municipalities and counties to provide exemptions or changes to property tax assessment criteria (such as Save Our Homes, Save Our Seniors, portability of exemptions or assessment criteria for affordable housing) under specific circumstances within their jurisdiction;
• Establishes specific assessment criteria and standards for the taxation of very-low-, low- and moderate-income housing;
• Establishes an equitable assessment system with standards and criteria that apply equally to all types of property and is based on the market value of the property’s current use;
• Establishes property tax equity by authorizing and requiring property appraisers to assess new construction, subject to appropriate exemptions, on a partial-year basis;
• Enhances a local budgeting process to encourage public participation;
• Establishes a more simplified and informative truth-in-millage (TRIM) process for property owners specifically as it relates to a taxing authority’s proposed budget and the implications for the property owner’s tax bill, including the elimination of information such as the “rollback” rate;
• Allows local governments to continue to establish revenue reserves based upon local circumstances and without interference from or prejudice by the state;
• Authorizes municipalities to levy any tax authorized by the state for any public purpose;
• Authorizes municipalities, or municipalities collectively within a county, to levy a sales tax with the proceeds, in part, to offset property taxes;
• Provides a constitutional amendment to clarify the intent of Section 1, Article VII of the Florida Constitution that prevents the dual taxation of municipal property for the primary benefit of the property or residents in the unincorporated areas; and
• Provides a constitutional amendment to strengthen Section 18, Article VII of the Florida Constitution to prohibit unfunded state mandates.
|
