This conservative is voting “Yes” Jan. 29

By Jack Furnari

Like Wile E. Coyote, Looney Tune Florida politicians may need several large Acme safes dropped on collectively thick heads to get the message: Florida homeowners are demanding lower property taxes.

In a lightly publicized study by the non-partisan, non-profit, Leadership Florida, one out of five Floridians say they are ready to leave Florida. The number one reason given for wanting to leave is high property taxes.

I’m sure there are some in the anti-growth world of eco-nuts that might consider the de-populating of Florida a good thing, but anyone with an IQ higher than a tree stump recognizes this trend has the potential to destroy Florida’s economy.

Through town hall meetings, emails, phone calls, blogs, polls and every other method we have of communicating with our elected officials, we the people have repeatedly told our leaders that taxes are too high in Florida and we want them lowered.

On January 29th, Floridians get to drop the first group of what I hope will be many, Acme safes onto the heads of our political ruling class. We get to decide whether to double the Homestead Exemption under Save Our Homes from $25,000 to $50,0000, allow for portability of our homestead exemption when we move, and cap non-homestead property taxes at 10 percent.

The enemies of this amendment are legion. Labor unions, big business groups, and scores of liberal advocacy shills are poised to bombard us with television ads and mailers describing all the woe and sorrow that will be inflicted on the poor unfortunates of the world if Floridians dare to vote for this very modest tax cut.

Most of these groups oppose property tax relief of any kind. Remember, the leaders of labor unions and liberal advocacy groups could care less about your property tax bill or the value of your home. Their job is to get as much money for their members as possible. That’s what they’re paid to do, and since their members are paid and funded with our tax dollars, they will always oppose any effort to lower taxes.

These groups will be aided and abetted by their accomplices in the local liberal media. I guarantee you, right now; these paragons of journalistic objectivity are scouring the earth looking for some poor old photogenic granny they can write about, who won’t get to play Mahjong at some community center every Tuesday night because of your hard heartedness.

Some business groups despise the Save Our Homes tax break because it excludes business and allows a disproportionate amount of the tax burden to fall on their members.
Fair enough, but business is being a bit disingenuous here. You see, business doesn’t really care too much about taxes on homeowners either. They care about taxes on business.

Local politicians oppose the amendment because they’ve gotten comfortable governing in an era with skyrocketing revenue from property taxes. Declining revenues caused by the burst real estate bubble means they might actually have to establish budget priorities and make meaningful decisions. They might actually have to act like leaders.

Despite all this opposition, the amendment has one really big thing going for it - Florida homeowners like it, and Florida homeowners vote.

The amendment cuts property taxes, but even more importantly, the portability clause will help kick-start the moribund real estate market and stabilize home values.

It isn’t for lack of compassion that Florida homeowners will vote “yes” on Amendment One. It’s for lack of money. We simply can’t afford to pay these taxes anymore.

Long time homeowners are the backbone of Florida. They’re the people who scrimped and saved for years to get the 20 percent down payment required to buy a home. These aren’t people who bought more house than they could afford with no money down. They’re the people who bought less of a house than they wanted and needed and worked 50, 60 or 70 hours a week to pay the mortgages, taxes and insurance while raising a family and anchoring our communities. They’re the heart and soul of Florida, and it’s time someone started paying attention to them.

Truth is, had our political leaders been listening to us instead of lobbyists and interest groups, a constitutional amendment to lower taxes wouldn’t have been necessary in the first place. Don’t let anyone kid you - local politicians can lower our taxes any time they want to simply by cutting millage rates.

Everyone deserves to have taxes cut and capped, but until we’re able to do that I say starve the beast that our government has become and vote “Yes” on Amendment One January 29.