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Lawmakers say no to tax-free holidays
By SUZETTE PORTER
Article published on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 |
PINELLAS COUNTY – Tax-free shopping holidays won’t be providing relief for citizen’s wallets or sparking sales for local retailers this year.
State lawmakers said no to the tax-free hurricane shopping holiday and the tax-free back to school shopping holiday.
Elithia Stanfield, assistant county administrator, and Sally Everett, manager of governmental relations, presented the Board of County Commissioners with an update of the 2008 legislative session in Tallahassee on May 6.
Stanfield said a final report was not yet available due to the flurry of activity on the last day of the session.
“A lot of amendments passed and the bills are not yet enrolled (finalized),” she said.
Everett summed things up by saying it was a “good and bad year.”
She highlighted a few of the actions – or non-actions, including the following.
- Affordable housing remains at “status quo” due to a last minute amendment by the House, which the Senate did not have time to consider.
- Growth management legislation did not pass, which Everett said was a “good thing.”
- A request to change the way property owned by property appraisers was appraised passed the House but not the Senate. The proposed legislation was one of the items recommended by the Pinellas County Grand Jury that investigated the land deal between the county and Property Appraiser Jim Smith last summer.
- Passage of an energy bill, which Everett said could have “troubling consequences” due to changes in regulations of power lines on publicly owned lands.
Stanfield outlined a couple measures that she said the commission would need to “deal with pretty soon.”
The first is a change to the Value Adjustment Board which mediates disputes between property owners and the property appraiser’s office over valuation of property for tax purposes.
Stanfield said a change in the composition of the board calls for two members to come from the board of county commissioners with one of those members being the chair, plus one school board member and two citizens. The citizen appointed by the board must have homesteaded property and the one appointed by the school board must have commercial property.
The value adjustment board also requires membership by a private attorney and special magistrates.
The “ugly part,” Stanfield said, is that now citizens can appeal decisions made by the value adjustment board to the board of county commissioners, which is required to schedule a hearing within 30 days after a citizen files the appropriate paperwork.
Stanfield also gave a brief overview of changes to legislation impacting the highest and best use property appraisals, which she said also was amended at the end of the session.
“I don’t think it does what people wanted it to do,” she said.
She said the words “legally permissible use of the property” were added, which could include such factors as the ability to get permits or pass other requirements necessary to achieve highest and best use.
Other highlights Stanfield talked about included what she called the Amendment 1 glitch bill, which she said was passed to make statutory changes required for portability and other measures included in Amendment 1, passed by voters in November.
The volunteer program for health insurance providers is still subject to who is willing to participate, she said. It’s still unknown how much it will help people who are uninsured.
She said the budget cuts turned out to be not quite as bad as expected. She said statewide, the budget for the health department was $9.2 million and less than 5 percent for the courts.
She said state lawmakers took “a lot of money from the trust fund.” For example, she said only the interest earned from the tobacco trust fund had been used to balance the state budget, but this year “they dipped into the principal.”
On a good note, she said, lawmakers did not remove the $2 million for Tampa Bay Regional Transportation Authority.
“Hopefully, the governor will leave it alone,” she said.
Governor Charlie Crist vetoed the funding for TBARTA that had been included in the 2007 state budget.
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Article published on Tuesday, May 13, 2008
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