Propety Tax Solution

Save Our Homes on the move
Author of amendment proposes change that would make homestead cap portable

NICHOLAS AZZARAHerald Staff Writer

MANATEE - Fed up with your property taxes? Reluctant to move to a bigger home in state because you'll assume a new, loftier homestead cap?

Tax relief may be on the horizon, but it may take collecting more than 600,000 signatures on a petition and a statewide voter referendum to turn the expensive tide.

The author of Florida's Save Our Homes amendment, Lee County Property Tax Appraiser Ken Wilkinson, is leading the charge to amend it.

During tax reform meetings throughout the state this fall, Wilkinson will be touting Save Our Homes Part 2, an idea to allow homesteaded property owners to transfer a portion of their original Save Our Homes cap to new homes. It's part of a statewide grassroots campaign to amend the Save Our Home amendment, which Wilkinson championed in the late 1980s.

Part 2, or Save Our Homes Portability, is designed to allow Florida residents more freedom to relocate within the state without having to give up sheltered homestead status. The current amendment limits the annual increase of taxable value for all homesteaded properties to 3 percent, or the increase in the cost of living, whichever is less.

Continue reading at: http://tinyurl.com/zzg5m