DUNEDIN - You can add real estate offices after restaurants, golf courses, condos and RV parks on the list of where you will find snowbirds, the perennial winter visitors from Michigan, Ontario and other parts north who began arriving in early November.
Despite the poor economy, and stronger efforts by Western states to recruit seasonal visitors affluent enough to afford two residences, more snowbirds are expected to gather in Florida this year than last, partly because of housing prices here.
Several proposals for major changes in Florida’s state and local tax systems are now under discussion. The intense interest in taxes, and especially property taxes, arises from the interaction of Save Our Homes (SOH) and the recent housing boom.
The interaction between the Save Our Homes assessment limit and Florida’s housing boom created a property tax system riddled with inequities and inefficiencies. The inequities are obvious, and the newspapers are filled with examples: neighbors with similar houses but one paying twice the property tax of the other. A more subtle inequity is that Save Our Homes favors homesteaders over renters, who on average are less affluent. The inefficiencies are both economic and political.
Publication Date:
08/17/2007
Author(s):
Archer, Wayne R.; Denslow, David A.; Dewey, James F.; Gatzlaff, Dean H.; Johns, Tracy L.; Macpherson, David A.; Norrbin, Stefan C.; Schlagenhauf, Donald E.; Scicchitano, Michael J.; Sirmans, G. Stacy; Stroh, Robert C.; Williamson, Anne R.
LAKEWOOD RANCH — Business owners and residents are on edge about possibly losing what they say is the last anchor in the new Main Street plaza — its movie theater.
Lakewood Ranch Cinemas, owned by the Sarasota Film Society and recognized as a nonprofit, is in dispute with the Manatee County Property Appraiser's Office over its tax-exempt status.
The biggest challenge to the strip's survival is finding another anchor should the theater be forced to close, said University of Florida economist Dave Denslow.
