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

It's Time to Reform Florida's Information Technology Procurement and Oversight

/ Categories: Research, Technology, Releases

This report highlights the chronic issues plaguing Florida's large-scale IT projects, such as inadequate planning, contracting, and management. These issues have led to the repeated formation and dissolution of a state agency overseeing these projects, with the most recent being the Florida Digital Service (FL[DS]) established in 2020. The paper provides a series of recommendations to prevent the failure of FL[DS]. These include forming a joint House and Senate IT committee for oversight, adopting a new governance model, standardizing statewide agency business processes, and revising Florida Statutes for better IT project procurement and vendor evaluation. Furthermore, the paper suggests methods to attract and retain IT talent, like offering signing bonuses, revising job descriptions to focus on skills, and creating a talent pipeline from the State University System. The report emphasizes the necessity for effective project management and strategic decisions to ensure the success of Florida's IT projects and to safeguard taxpayer investments​​.