Legislators not exempt from homesteading talks
FLORIDA CAPITAL BUREAU
Where the proposals stand
Lawmakers are still focused on homesteaders. Plenty of details remain to be worked out, including what kind of tax relief is offered to nonhomestead residential owners and commercial-property owners. They would likely get some sort of exemption themselves, as homesteaders get now.
Options under consideration for homesteaders are:
House Speaker Marco Rubio favors giving homesteaders an exemption equal to roughly three-fourths of the median value of all homes, then 50-percent exemptions on the home value that falls between 100 percent and 200 percent of the county median. Homes valued higher than that could get one-quarter of the extra value exempted.
Homesteaders could get a supersized exemption from taxation, "tiered" to the value of the home, with the exemptions ranging from 30 percent to 80 percent. The percentage would go down as the value goes up.
House Democrats have proposed a smaller version of the plan Rubio favors, exempting half of each county's median home price from taxation.
In Leon County, the median home value is $135,520. Therefore, $67,760 in taxable value would be removed from all homestead bills. An average homeowner would save $1,324.
In each plan rolled out so far, homesteaders who save more under the Save Our Homes protections they have now could keep them until they sell their home. The Senate is not proposing a separate plan at this time and plans to negotiate within the structure set forth in the House plans.
Only the House Democratic plan also applies to school tax levies, but Republicans are unlikely to agree to a school property-tax cut.
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