Well it is not unusual I guess (although very sad) to find politicians attempting to mislead the people. It happens all the time and indeed is happening a lot right now as the various presidential candidates jockey for position in the run up to the Primaries.
Hilary for example has been against all torture and now we find she is for some torture. Obama is against the war, but won't commit to having all US troops out of Iraq by the end of his first term in 2013. The Republicans are just as bad so I'm not picking on the Democrats here.
But let me bring this closer to my home. Florida has been going through tremendous pain over property taxes. The Governor made some promises in his election campaign and various members of the legislature made commitments too. 
The result of all of that was a two part piece of legislation. Part one was a Statewide average cut of $174 this Fall. Now of course to get the average, some people will actually be looking at tax INCREASES this Fall and that has nothing to do with various Cities and Counties ignoring the first part of the legislation.
Part two came by way of an amendment to appear on the January 29 ballot here giving the people a chance to vote yes or no or something so complicated that a judge actually threw it off the ballot last week.
In the meantime, the Florida Association of Realtors decided to support the amendment to the tune of $1m. I do not personally know a single Realtor or Mortgage broker who thinks it is a good idea, but there you go. And then we get into the deception.
Please follow carefully. Right now Florida has something called the Save Our Homes Amendment which limits the value of a home for tax purposes on homesteaded property to a 3% increase a year. Foridians like this, but it does have some problems. However, most Floridians who would vote against any amendment in favor of the legislation would do so in order to keep Save Our Homes. Naturally the Yes campaign is aware of this and so they called their campaign: "Vote Yes on 1 - Save Our Homes Now".
The legislation will in fact give people a chance to keep SOH if they wanted to - but a yes vote would indeed be for the eventual abolition of SOH which has been recognized by the judge who threw the amendment off the ballot.
First of all those who make a choice to keep the 3% cap will lose it the second they move house and it will be gone forever so a Yes vote is actually for the eventual abolition of Save Our Homes and the 3% cap. Secondly if you intend to be in your home for less than three years and assuming a yes vote is delivered, then it would actually be in your best interests to give up SOH immediately. You will have more money in your pocket - unless of course you live in a home worth less than $200,000 in which case the length of time you plan to stay in your home has no effect on the fact that you would be better off with the new exemption. All of the above assumes that your local County or City or both do not avail themselves of the powers granted to them under the new legislation to ignore everything and raise millage. I hope you got that, but feel free to give me a call or indeed to tune into the radio show tomorrow at 12 noon Eastern when we will have a State Senator with us.
Perhaps now you non Floridians begin to understand why the judge threw it out! It is horrible legislation and I really hope it does not pass.
The Home Team Radio Showcan be found at 12 noon Eastern every Sunday on 540 WFLA or for those of you not in Central Florida, you can tune in on line at www.540wfla.com
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