A Pinellas County Commissioner says if Florida\u2019s property tax referendum passes in November, it could mean fewer working families will be able to afford to move to the area.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Kathleen Peters claims passage of the referendum won\u2019t lower housing prices. Instead, it would effectively raise other fees for services that working families are more likely to use than seniors.<\/p>\n
And she said new families won\u2019t be able to afford to buy homes here, while retirees can sell their homes in higher-priced states and move to Florida.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I see is who\u2019s going to come to Florida as a result of this policy? And it\u2019s not going to be the young families, because they still can\u2019t afford to buy the houses, at least in my county,\u201d she said during a joint meeting of three county commissions Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo who\u2019s going to come? I believe it\u2019s going to be the seniors that are going to come, because they\u2019re going to want to retire in Florida, where they don\u2019t pay property tax, they don\u2019t pay income tax, and they don\u2019t pay inheritance tax,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo what I see as an unintended consequence is that the median age in Pinellas County will go from 50 to 70 in probably 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peters said that would reduce the number of employees companies need to move to the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy thought is we have a real chance of losing our workforce, and that has a huge impact statewide,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Opponents of the referendum have said that by reducing property taxes, local governments would have to increase sales taxes and fees on other essential services \u2014 including hospital districts, children\u2019s services, parks and libraries. While supporters believe it could help alleviate affordability crises for some Floridians.<\/p>\n
Several other Pinellas commissioners echoed Peters\u2019 concerns about the upcoming referendum.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t just a tax restructuring, it\u2019s a power shift. Local government\u2019s really losing its authority,\u201d Commissioner Brian Scott said. \u201cThis is an unbridled power grab like I\u2019ve never seen in my entire life. I don\u2019t know why they didn\u2019t just take all of us out at the same time. Why do you need us anymore? What\u2019s the point of local government if you\u2019re just a ward of the state and you just have to go to Tallahassee to ask for permission to do anything?\u201d<\/p>\n
Pinellas Commissioner Dave Eggers also had a message to state lawmakers after they approved the referendum after about 24 hours of debate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do need to be thinking about that, just to make sure that we\u2019re continue sending that message that just says, look, in all of the conversations you\u2019re having up there, please keep these things in mind,\u201d he said. \u201cYou know, there is some value to being the government closest to the people, and we\u2019d like you to hear from us a little bit more.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ballot amendment raises Florida\u2019s current $50,000 threshold for taxing primary residences, or homestead properties, to $150,000 in 2027 and to $250,000 in 2028. This would erase property taxes on primary homes assessed at these values or less.<\/p>\n
The measure says the Legislature \u201cshall\u201d create a schedule to continue raising the exemption in subsequent years, but that\u2019s optional.<\/p>\n
The amendment also includes changes for second homes, businesses and other non-homestead properties, reducing their annual property tax increase cap from 10% to 5%.<\/p>\n
Steve Newborn is a reporter for WUSF, the bay area\u2019s NPR affiliate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Pinellas County Commissioner says if Florida\u2019s property tax referendum passes in November, it could mean fewer working…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-300028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}