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Florida Amendment 6 - it's about time!

By
Real Estate Agent with Keller Williams Realty

I mentioned in a previous blog how excited I was about a number of the proposed constitutional amendments  having to do with property tax reform.

Here is my absolute favorite: Number 6, Assessment of Working Waterfront Property Based Upon Current Use.

These things make a lot more sense if they are put into context, so here's the context for this one as I understand it:

If you own a waterfront business, you get assessed and pay property tax like any other property owner. The assessment is the problem. The appraiser is currently appraising property at it's "highest and best use." What does that mean, exactly? It means that the use of the lot which maximizes its property value is defined as its highest and best use!

Let's assume your little piece of waterfront land is a small bait shop and boat ramp, with a little shack and a parking lot. And let's say that, under current zoning, if you wanted to, you could legally build, at maximum, 10 residential condominiums of 2,500 square feet each, and that the appraised value of these units would be $500,000 each. Therefore, this "highest and best use" of your land would put its value at $5 million.

How would you like to be taxed as if your property were worth $5 million? That is what has been happening. If a small business can't pay that kind of tax, there is a tremendous pressure to sell to the highest bidder, and that will almost certainly be the developer who will in fact build those condomiuniums. So the small business gets pushed off the land, the community loses the small business (and perhaps the quaint bait shop that gives the area its character --part of the reason people find the area so attractive!). Instead, the community gets 10 condos that fill the lot to the limit and rise as high as the law allows.

The wording of the proposed amendment is pretty straightforward. The summary you'll see on the ballot looks like this: Assessment of Working Waterfront Property Based Upon Current Use "provides for assessment based upon use of land used predominantly for commercial fishing purposes; land used for vessel launches into waters that are navigable and accessible to the public; marinas and drystacks that are open to the public; and water-dependent marine manufacturing facilities, commercial fishing facilities, and marine vessel construction and repair facilities and their support activities, subject to conditions, limitations, and reasonable definitions specified by general law."

Clear as mud? In other words, under the proposed law, the property would be appraised according to its current use, not its highest-and-best use.

Ever wonder why the character of the Florida waterfront is changing, and why everything funky is being replaced by shiny new stuff? This is part of the reason. Now, some folks think that's a shame, and others think that's great. Whichever way you view it, you'll want to pay attention to this amendment 6, ask questions, and show up at the polls!

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