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The property tax issues within the last 5 years are actually several issues that everyone seems to be blaming only on too high of property taxes. The issues that are providing this perception include the following:

• Deception, assumptions, and lack of FULL disclosure in Real Estate advertising.

• Property taxes being based on a property's value and the accelerated property value increases of the past.

• The state government preaching propaganda that they have provided REAL relief to the property tax issues.

• State and local governments using scare tactics of having to reduce services if property taxes are cut.

• State and local governments having increased revenues from property taxes spending unwisely.

• Lack of education to the consumer on how property taxes are assessed.

First of all, there has been a REAL disservice to consumers with respect to lack of full disclosure in Real Estate transactions. Current laws require sellers of property to fully disclose anything that they know of that is “wrong” with the property. Current laws do not require sellers,

Real Estate professionals, or Homeowners' Associations (HOA) to accurately disclose anything else besides the sellers disclosure mentioned above. Therefore, aggressive and/or questionable activities by an HOA are not found out by the buyer until after they have

closed on the property. Additionally, a buyer may purchase a home thinking that they can put up a nice fence only to be told that they cannot by the HOA. Furthermore, a buyer is shocked to find out that their property taxes, in some cases, has doubled and even tripled

from what was advertised on the Real Estate listing that was provided to them.

Many of these disclosure items can be resolved by simple mandatory disclosure requirements of the seller, Real Estate professionals, and HOAs. Therefore, I am proposing a Real Estate FULL Disclosure law that requires HOAs, Real Estate professionals, and sellers to completely disclose the following items:

For HOAs

• HOAs must disclose the last 5 years assessment per association member including yearly assessment for the property.
• HOAs must disclose upon request the financial statements including detailed expenses and revenues for the last 3 years.
• HOAs must disclose and provide a copy of the bylaws, any other governing documents, any policies, procedures, and rules of

the HOA.

• HOAs must disclose ALL Architectural Control policies and rules.

For Real Estate Professionals:

• Real Estate professionals must NOT include current property tax values but must advertise property tax values based

on the current millage and listing or selling price, whichever applies, and does not include any accounting for

exemptions. This property tax disclosure must be on all listing advertisements and in a Real Estate disclosure

form to be signed and accepted by the buyer. If the buyer does not accept the property tax disclosure, the Real

Estate transaction is void. In the case where a Real Estate professional is not engaged in the transaction, the

responsibility of the REAL property tax disclosure falls on the seller.

• Real Estate professional MUST use heated square feet in all advertisements and marketing of a property. This

makes it mandatory to not include garages, Florida rooms, etc in the advertised dwelling square feet.


For Sellers: In addition to already existing disclosure requirements of sellers:

• Sellers must disclose any items that are wrong with the property

• Sellers must disclose the current wind rating that the dwelling is able to stand up to excessive winds such as in

tropical storms and hurricanes. This includes the roof, windows, and walls of the dwelling.

• Sellers must disclose any termite information related to the house even though the house may currently be free of

termites.

• Sellers must disclose any flood damage and repairs thereof on the property that occurred within the last 10 years

even though such damage may have been repaired.

• Sellers must disclose any suspected items with the property. Sellers may avoid the suspected items disclosure by

paying for a home warranty for one (1) year.

With this Real Estate Full Disclosure law, buyers of property would have the information necessary to purchase property knowing what to expect from the condition to what to expect with respect to property taxes. This law would completely remove any and all surprises buyers have faced in the past.

Property taxes should have two forms to how they are calculated, with the opportunity for the property owner to choose the least calculated result. The current calculation using appraised value and the millage rate along with the Homestead and Save Our Homes

exemptions should be one. The other calculation would leverage the prior year's taxable value before exemptions plus 5% and then adding the exemptions. Upon the sale of a house, the "plus 5%" calculation can be used and may be the lower of the two calculations. This would protect property tax values from accelerating as they have in the past.

The state government meant well in their efforts to assist Florida property owners in the property tax issues, but they came up short. Initial expectations of drastic reductions in property taxes were not met. Instead, the passed legislation that was advertised by government

officials to be a solution to the property tax issues with legislators patting themselves on the back for providing property tax reform saved the average property owner $174. When compared to 2002 levels, this savings is about 10% of the increase. Therefore, this is a far short result from what was supposed to provide drastic reductions. Property owners are still paying 90% more than they were just 6 years ago ...

trying to declare that reform has been accomplished is irresponsible and misleading. Furthermore, government officials should hold themselves to higher standards of disclosure and should have never declared victory to the property tax issues ... they should have declared that it was a minimal reduction and did not even come close to expectations. However, what politician wants to declare failure ...

regardless, government officials need to be more honest with their constituents.Let's take a look why the legislature had problems providing REAL relief. REAL relief would have to be paid for and it does not appear that enough options were explored to find a way to pay for a property tax cut. I am sure many have heard about the sales tax increase options ... however, this was bound to fail as many voters are not property owners and, therefore, would have to pay higher sales taxes without anything in return. Realistically, the sales tax option is a very good option considering the amount of tourism in the state.

However, the approach taken lacked realistic opportunity for passage and provided opportunity for local governments to scare voters without addressing their own government's unnecessary spending from the increased revenues. The easiest way to avoid the local government scare tactics is to pay for the tax cut.

To provide REAL relief, force financial responsibility on state and local governments, and provide for the support of non-property owners, I

propose the following:

• The "plus 5%" calculation as described above.

• A property tax credit based on an Enhanced sales tax of 2% with 2 one week exemption periods as explained below. This Enhanced sales tax would be on all items excluding the following:

• Food
• Beverages
• Vehicles
• Large appliances
• Electronics over $500
• Cleaning supplies

There would be 2 one week exemptions on ALL sales tax (regular and enhanced) for clothing and household goods with one week in October and the other week in January. These exemption weeks would hopefully provide the non-property owner the incentive to provide

support for the Enhanced Sales Tax; as they would receive benefit from this effort to reduce property taxes by having these sales tax exempt weeks on these items.

The revenues from the Enhanced Sales Tax would be used in the following manner to reduce property taxes: The revenues of the enhanced sales tax minus the lost sales tax revenues of the exemption weeks would equal the net enhanced sales tax revenue. The net

enhanced sales tax revenue would then be compared to the property tax revenues (not accounting for credits ... see below) to find out what percentage the enhanced sales tax revenue is of the property tax revenue. When finding this percentage, a credit would be applied

to each property owner using the calculated percent multiplied by the property tax paid the year prior. Therefore, the property owners would pay their next year taxes less the credit.

For example: If the Enhanced Sales Tax revenue was 2 billion and the property tax revenue was 10 billion, the calculated percent for the Enhanced Sales Tax would be 20%. If a property owner paid $4,000 before any credit, the property owner would receive a credit of $800 (20% of the prior year taxes) on their next year tax bill.

This Enhanced Sales Tax option along with the "plus 5%" calculation would provide REAL relief to property tax issues with a method for paying for the credits. Therefore, scare tactics by local governments would be unfounded. Furthermore, I would also make part of law that

local governments make available via voting ballot any non-infrastructure expenditure over $100,000. This would keep local governments honest with the people and would stop the unnecessary spending such as where a city in Florida spent $300,000 for a statue in front of a

courthouse. That $300,000 could have put more Policemen on patrol ... the statue was very unwise spending. I would imagine that if that expenditure went to the ballot, it would have been voted down by a landslide.

Finally, I suggest that each property appraiser office provide a detailed explanation via their website and also by mail on request of how property taxes are calculated. I also encourage each appraisers office to reach out and educate people on property tax calculations so that these residents can make decisions wisely when voting for a millage increase.