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House pushes Senate to make deeper tax cuts; Orlando Sentinel
April 24, 2007

Jason Garcia

Tallahassee Bureau

April 24, 2007

TALLAHASSEE -- Twelve hundred dollars.

That's the absolute minimum on average that House Republicans said primary homeowners should save in property taxes next year, as they kicked off property-tax negotiations Monday with the Senate with a numerical line in the sand.

Second-home owners and rental-property owners should save at least $750, and commercial-property owners should save at least $3,300, they added.

Those figures mirror the savings that would be produced if the Senate agreed to most of the House's plan to impose deep cuts on local governments and swap lower property taxes for a higher sales tax.

But that's an idea the Senate has flatly rejected so far.

The Senate wants to enact softer cuts, while expanding existing breaks for homeowners.

Rep. Dean Cannon, the House's chief negotiator, said the House is perfectly willing to consider other property-tax ideas -- as long as they provide the same amount of savings.

"This is the savings that we're insisting on for the taxpayers," said Cannon, R-Winter Park.

Left unsaid, however, is that such a level of tax cuts would cost cities and counties close to $85 billion over five years, an amount senators immediately warned could cripple them.

Senate Majority Leader Daniel Webster, R-Winter Garden, characterized the goal as "hard," even as he repeated the Senate's longstanding opposition to raising the sales or any other tax to offset property-tax cuts.

"There wouldn't be anybody much in business," Webster said.

"It's certainly not a number the Senate is prepared to take," added Senate Minority Leader Steve Geller, D-Cooper City.

Beyond trying to establish a benchmark, negotiators on either side offered little in the way of concessions in the first property tax offer, as the two chambers try to work out a final product before the 2007 session's scheduled end May 4.

The thorniest issues, such as the tax swap, won't likely be resolved until the weekend or next week.