Friday, January 26, 2007

First Property Tax Town Hall Meeting a Success

Last night was the first of eight town-hall style meetings across the state to address the issue of property taxes. The Panama City event saw a croud of almost 500 citizens who wanted to let their opinions be known and to share their thoughts on how to reduce property taxes.

Read the story here:

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/012607/met_7581851.shtml

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a great turnout. Shows folks are truly involved. Your Town Hall approach will net positive results if all legislators stay focused.

Anonymous said...

The homeowners get the $25,000 homestead exemption, and get the 3% cap on their real estate taxes and will probably get an additional $25,000 homestead exemption. I expect they are the only ones to be heard, since they will be voting. These are the same Florida voters living in their homes full time, have kids going to school, using the roads and all government services on a regular basis. They are the ones that should be paying the taxes for the services they are using.

The 2nd home owners and investors, are now subsidizing the homeowner by, in some cases, paying several times as much taxes, especially for lower priced properties, as the full time homeowner. The full time howeowners should be paying for the services they using on a full time basis. Why should someone from Michigan, that uses their Florida vacation house a couple of times a year, be paying several times as much taxes as the person who lives here full time. The full time homeowner probably has 3-4 kids going to school and 3 or 4 automobiles using the roads?

Even though I am a full time homeowner I feel I should pay my fair-share of taxes, since I am using the services full time. I am happy to pay the needed taxes on my lovely house. I do not want the part-timers having to pay my fair share. My kids are using the schools, not their kids.

No additional $25,000 exemption for me.