SAVING ‘SAVE OUR HOMES’

A Florida circuit judge tossed out a challenge to Florida’s popular Save Our Homes (SOH) amendment on Monday, but the plaintiff’s lawyer says the fight will continue. Three residents of Alabama who own second homes in Florida are challenging SOH, saying it unfairly shifts the property tax burden to non-homesteaded owners and businesses, which is unconstitutional under U.S. law. The court challenge to SOH, whether successful or not, will take time to work its way through the legal system. The Alabama plaintiffs’ lawyer says that his next stop is Florida’s 1st District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee – a court that upheld SOH in 2000. The Florida Supreme Court will then automatically hear the case if the 1st District Court of Appeal decides the law is unconstitutional, according to Victoria Weber, an attorney with Hopping Green & Sams in Tallahassee. If the court rules against the plaintiffs and simply upholds the SOH law, however, a review by the Florida Supreme Court is discretionary and not likely, Weber says.

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