9 Actions Florida Should Take to Help Taxpayers Impacted by Hurricane Ian

1.     Postpone tax notices and waive penalties or interest for late tax filings in affected areas

2.     Extend the date for residents to take advantage of the tax discounts they would normally receive for paying property taxes and special assessments in November and postpone or defer the deadline for property tax installment payments

3.     Protect individual and business taxpayers from the risks for notices that they will likely not receive because their home or business addresses is not accessible anymore

4.     Issue no new audits in severely impacted areas, extend the statute of limitations and postpone existing audits that haven’t reached the assessment stage because these can’t be responded to while entire communities are still recovering

5.     Create procedures for fairly estimating taxes which can’t be calculated because records have been destroyed by the storm, moving away from the current method which significantly overestimates activity if no records are available

6.     Initiate procedures to offer payment plan assistance for late taxes, rather than resorting to the standard collection methods, like liens, levies, or bank freezes

7.     Retroactively apply the recently passed law that provides property tax refunds for residential property rendered uninhabitable as a result of a catastrophic event

8.     Provide tangible personal property relief and allow n on-residential properties rendered uninhabitable to receive property tax refunds

9.     Get Congress to pass a Disaster Tax Relief Act that includes provisions from past packages, including elements such as an Employee Retention Credit, an enhanced casualty loss deduction, and other relief provisions

Other Resources

Florida TaxWatch Statement on Hurricane Ian Recovery

Community Involvement

Beyond the Pandemic—Long-Term Changes and Challenges for Postsecondary Training

TO RECOGNIZE THE FUTURE CHANGES AND CHALLENGES FOR FLORIDA’S POSTSECONDARY TRAINING, IT IS IMPERATIVE TO BEGIN WITH AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE FUTURE WORKFORCE. As highlighted in last month’s economic commentary, Florida’s workforce is poised for disruptive change as automation, artificial intelligence, and other innovative technologies take hold in the coming years, accelerated in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Shifting demographics as the Baby Boomer generation exits the labor force will also fuel broader changes for the working population. For these reasons, the needs of the future workforce place a premium on human skills development—equipping individuals with the requisite skills to be prepared for a workforce full of disruption and displacement. Increasingly, postsecondary institutions and industry will both be crucial to training workers for an ever-evolving economy.

Florida has the ambitious goal of becoming the best state in the nation for workforce development by 2030, known as the Get There Faster initiative. Expanding access to quality Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses along with traditional postsecondary credentials will require more participation and completion around the state.

Another long-term goal—“Sail to 60”—aims to increase the percentage of working-age Floridians with a high-value postsecondary degree, certificate, or training to 60 percent by 2030. Florida is approximately at 52.8 percent of its attainment goal with around 10.5 percent of individuals possessing a short-term credential and 42.3 percent having an associate, bachelor, or graduate degree. Since 2008, Florida’s overall postsecondary educational attainment rate has risen by 16 percentage points from 36.8 percent to 52.8 percent.

For Florida to fully realize its 60 percent postsecondary attainment goal and eventually exceed it, the priorities outlined throughout this commentary offer a basic starting point, such as understanding enrollment trends at institutions and enhancing upskilling priorities with industries. Another innovative approach can be found in the Broward UP model—a community-centric approach to providing postsecondary training to individuals in underrepresented communities. Broward UP directly goes into local areas and provides workforce training programs that lead to in-demand certificates and credentials. A prior TaxWatch analysis found that students are expected to earn an additional $204,000 in lifetime earnings after participating. It should be further studied how a similar model would yield economic value to Florida if employed across the entire state. Additionally, much research remains for understanding the dynamics of postsecondary training throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

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