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Numbers Crunching Delays Tax Votes

October 17th, 2007 by Mike Vasilinda

Tax experts at the Capitol have been crunching numbers all day, trying to determine how one change or another to property taxes will affect schools and local governments. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, The House and Senate are working on vastly different plans, and hope for a quick resolution is fading into next week.

Hear it here: Numbers Crunching Delays Tax Votes

The Legislative Day began with a bang…and an unusual prayer from Rep. Maria Sachs of Delray Beach.

“Oh Dear Lord, it’s hard to be a legislator.”

Hard because Wednesday was the day lawmakers had hoped to finish their tax cutting. Instead, they are arguing over whether to give seniors a bigger tax break than everyone else…and if so, how much more it should be. They disagree on whether property taxes should be capped at 3 to 7 percent, and whether the sales tax should be raised to lower school taxes.  House Speaker Marco Rubio says there is only one deadline.

“Our only deadline, in terms of getting something on the ballot, is October 28. I’m not saying that’s when we’re going to keep you here until. I mean, this is a process and it’ll work its way through and we’ll get to where we need to be.” says the Speaker.

Lawmakers must have something done by the end of the month to make the January Ballot.  The GOP leadership must also get some votes from Democrats to make that January vote a reality.  Democratic Senator Dave Aronberg says that makes for good policy “They can’t roll the Democrats. They have to listen to the minority party and that’s good for democracy.”

As lawmakers put the breaks on, Governor Charlie Crist says he’s called everyone of them in the last couple of days. Some calls have gone out at 5:30 in the morning.  “I said, you know what’s important to stay focused on is that this is a journey and whatever property tax relief we can put before the voters is good. And we’ll keep going.”

Yet Charlie Crist remains optimistic that lawmakers can’t go home without giving him what he wants….lower property tax bills. Lawmakers are also talking about ending some sales tax exemptions to offset a drop in property tax revenues for schools, but that debate will likely wait until the regular legislative session in the Spring.

Posted in Amendments, Charlie Crist, Legislature, Politics, Property Taxes, State News, Voting | No Comments »

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