Real Estate Blog

Ronald McGregor            
             
Wellington, Fl. 33449
   
Below is my letter to the editor entitled "Property Tax Revolt". I emailed
it to five different city newspapers.  May I suggest that you modify it, if you like, and send to our Governor, Senators, and Representatives, as they meet in a special session.  Thank you.

Below is my letter to the editor.
Ronald McGregor    

                            PROPERTY TAX REVOLT
Are you sick and tired of the value of your home going down every month for
the past year? We are in the worst real estate crisis in decades because
people are not buying homes! Local and out of State potential buyers who are no longer wanting to move to  Florida are not buying mainly because of our extremely high property taxes. If you do sell your home to someone, they
will not be paying the same amount of tax that you currently pay. Their tax
bill will double, triple or more because it will be based on today's value.
 
In June our Governor said that property taxes are going to "drop
like a rock". You have received your preliminary tax notice and , at best,
taxes dropped like a pebble in the ocean! Our State Legislature and Governor let us down !  It's time to tell them that property taxes must be lowered drastically or even eliminated now, even if it takes raising the State sales tax to do this. Our property taxes pay for things that everyone benefits
from, including schools, libraries, health care, child services, police and
fire, etc.  These services should be paid for by everyone who benefits.
That is a much broader base than property owners alone. Even tourist and
snowbird dollars would contribute to paying for these services. Low or no property taxes would bring back the buyers to Florida again. Then the value of our homes will stabilize and eventually go up again. But you must do your part to make that happen! Last March the speaker of the State House of Representatives, Marco Rubio, proposed raising the Sales Tax to eliminate property taxes. 120 Representatives voted for it, but the 40 State senators killed this important bill! This was totally unfair to property owners and potential buyers.            
 
Now it's time for a property tax revolt! We must let the Senators, Governor and our Representatives know how we feel as soon as possible. We must bombard them with thousands of phone calls, emails, faxes and letters, especially to the Senators and Governor. Tell them we need a special session to solve the property tax crisis by increasing the state sales tax, which is a reasonable and palatable cure for this huge, complex property tax problem.

The Governor¹s contact numbers are: 850-488-4441,
Charlie.crist@myflorida.com
The president of the Senate is Ken Pruit 772-344-1140,
pruit.ken.web@flsenate.gov
To find all Senators go to www.leg.state.fl.us

and to find all representatives go to www.myfloridahouse.gov  

This is your State, and it is on  'life-support' with the housing crisis affecting almost every segment of the population. It's time for all Florida¹s property owners and potential buyers to take action now!
 
Ronald McGregor