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

Download the Recommendations

Other Resources

Florida Disaster.biz
FEMA
Florida Department of Financial Services
Florida SBDC
Disaster Contractors Network
Florida Disaster Fund

Florida TaxWatch Statement on Hurricane Ian Recovery

Community Involvement

/ Categories: Blog

Class Size Reduction Back On Tap

The Constitution Revision Commission (CRC) has proposed an amendment to the Florida Constitution (P0090) that would permit public school districts to comply with Florida’s class size limits on a school-level average instead of the current maximum class size. Any savings would be applied towards raising teacher salaries to the national average.

The Florida Department of Education reports average teacher salaries of $47,858 for the 2016-17 school year. This is approximately $11,000 less than the average teacher salary nationwide. To bring the average salary for Florida’s 174,000 public school teachers up to the national average, P0090 would have to generate more than $1.9 billion dollars in annual savings. When fringe benefits are included, the required annual savings exceed $2.6 billion.

The State of Florida has invested $40 billion to reduce class sizes, with the expectation that smaller class sizes will result in improved academic performance. The most definitive study of class size reduction in Florida (Chingos, 2010) found that class size reduction had no discernable impact upon student achievement, either positive or negative.

There is no substitute to having a highly-skilled, well-trained teacher in every classroom. Concerns about the decline in teacher quality that accompanies the hiring of so many new teachers to fill the new classrooms cannot be overemphasized. The increase in the number of teachers with limited experience and credentials dampens any benefits of smaller classes, particularly in schools with high percentages of minority and economically disadvantaged students.

The CRC would be well-advised to consider amending P0090 to maintain the current maximum class size of 18 students in grades pre-kindergarten through grade 3. Florida’s current focus on limiting class sizes to 18 students in pre-kindergarten through grade 3 is consistent with many studies that show that the greatest influence on student achievement occurs when class size is reduced to fewer than 20 students, especially in the first years of elementary school.

If reinvesting the savings from P0090 into teacher salaries keeps highly-skilled, well-trained teachers in the classroom, then that will be money well-spent.

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