FORT MYERS, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 Amendment Two will determine whether farmers will continue paying annual taxes on their machinery or if they will get a tax break.<\/p>\n
In the state of Florida, the first $25,000 of a business’ equipment value is exempted from tangible personal property taxes. For farmers that have equipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, that amount is not nearly enough.<\/p>\n
“We’re just wanting some help to give us some relief to stay in business a little another day,” said Wayne Simmons, a citrus grower.<\/p>\n
Amendment Two will get rid of the property taxes on qualifying agricultural equipment or personal property used for farming.<\/p>\n
“Well, basically, if we’re paying $2,000 an acre for input costs to grow a crop of oranges, this will take maybe $30 or $40 off of that $2,000. It’s very minuscule, but it certainly every dollar helps,” Simmons said.<\/p>\n
Citrus grower Wayne Simmons said he pays sales tax on machinery when he buys it and is taxed each year for using it. Any savings could help.<\/p>\n
Those who oppose Amendment Two say it benefits the corporations, not the small farmers.<\/p>\n
“We’re not opposed to helping the small farmer. We understand their situation. We want to keep our small farmers around, but this is not the way to do it,” said Jim Rosinus of the Lee Democratic Party.<\/p>\n
“Regardless of the size of the farm, we’re still part of that group that feeds America and keeps America whole,” Simmons said.<\/p>\n
According to Florida Tax Watch, a government watchdog, taxation of tangible personal property in Florida raises approximately $3.2 billion for counties, cities, schools and special districts, compared to the state’s $59 billion property tax system. Those against it say the tax will affect budgets and that brings higher costs elsewhere, especially in the rural counties of the state.<\/p>\n
“If they don’t have other industry to make up the difference, then their residents are going to have to make up the difference. They probably don’t have a lot of leeway in their government to be able to take that kind of a hit,” Rosinus said.<\/p>\n
It takes at least 60% yes votes for Amendment Two to pass. If it gets enough votes, it will go into effect in January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT MYERS, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 Amendment Two will determine whether farmers will continue paying annual taxes on their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[171814,3017,209,211,210,1812,28,897,169819,171815,171817,171816],"class_list":["post-440082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-agricultural-equipment","tag-america","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-democratic-party","tag-florida","tag-fort-myers","tag-jim-rosinus","tag-machinery","tag-small-farmer","tag-wayne-simmons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440082","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=440082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}