When Charles Joseph Crist, Jr. ran for Governor of Florida I had doubts.I still do. First of all he was our Attorney General and like it or not I am not crazy about attorneys. The major reason is because in our own town of Fort Myers Beach two of the 5 elected congressman are lawyers. They are Real Estate lawyers and as such I have used their services as a Realtor® and know them.They are excellent Real Estate attorneys but as congressman its another matter. I thought it would be the same.I am givingCharlie Crist the benefit of the doubt. Its all going to be up to the voters on January 29th 2008. They can talk until the cows come back home.One has to take a stance Check the article by Rainer Marc Blassi of Palm Beach Gardens:6/5 Update on Florida Property Tax.
Are we going to get rid of save our Homes plan adopted in 1992 by our own local civil servant: The Honorable Ken Wilkinson, our Lee County Property Appraiser, It would great if homesteaders could roll up to $400,000 of their tax value to a next purchase and 50 % of the assessed value of that new property.But where is the catch ? Is the Sales tax going to be raised by 1 %?
I would suggest to revise the following Florida Tax Petition for legislative action.I am just asking for you to take a look at it. As Marc Bassi mentions if the owners feel they could save more with Our save our Homes plan they could keep that program. The point:Florida's proposed "super homestead exemption" would slash taxes by about 60 percent for the owner of a new median-priced house.and it certainly would aid restore the Real Estate market in Florida and in Fort Myers and Lee County and South West Florida as a whole.
Even though Fort Myers is able to "survive" with about 450 sales a month, there is no question that we need a change in our property taxes. lets not forget that 1.2 million of second home owners in Florida are not "rich" as is thought and have an average annual income of $52,000, have been put out with our recent raise in taxes and have to sell or are thinking of selling: it would also attract non residents to purchase in Florida and not be hammered.We need Florida tax reforms, period.
Fort Myers and The Beach Real Estate and of course Florida residents and owners in general would greatly benefit from revised taxes for non residents.WE have 20 % of Germans in Cape Coral for example and large portion of non Floridians, as Canadians, South Americans. Personally I would prefer to pay an extra point on sales taxes. View & Print Petition
LLoyd Nichols
Real Estate Network Services
6360 Presidential Court, suite 4
Fort Myers , Florida 33919
cell: 239-810-2980
fax: 239-463-4826
web site: http://homesftmyersfl.com/
web site: http://www.mlsouthwestfloridahomes.com/
Real Estate Blog: http://activerain.com/lloydn
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