April 22, 2007 • 9:30 P.M.
Side-by-side comparison of tax proposals. How would the House and Senate tax plans affect you and your business? On a statewide level, the competing proposals rewrite the way Florida funds local government services, but the impact could be substantial on some property owners while minimal for other owners. Broad proposals made newspaper headlines – the House’s plan to phase out some property taxes altogether, for example – but the comprehensive bills cover everything from impact fees on new construction to using rent levels as a component of property value.
A side-by-side study of the House and Senate proposals accomplishes two goals: First, every property owner in Florida can crunch the numbers and see the potential impact of the two plans. Second, property reform of some sort will almost certainly pass this legislative session, and a compromise does not necessarily mean the House and Senate will simply pick something in the middle. Specific components in each plan, for example, could become part of the compromise bill as written; other components will die; still others could be adjusted and, in the final compromise, bear only a passing resemblance to the House or Senate’s original proposals.
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