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

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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

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Economic Commentary - The State of Medicaid in Florida

IN PAST ECONOMIC DOWNTURNS, SOCIAL SAFETY NET PROGRAMS HAVE PERFORMED AS LARGE STABILIZERS to support vulnerable populations during times of financial distress. Yet as the past year has shown, the COVID-19 pandemic has placed an unprecedented strain on the country’s safety net system. In particular, Medicaid—which provides health insurance to low-income families, children, and disabled individuals—has faced difficulty accommodating the growing wave of enrollments. Even as the economic recovery begins to take form in Florida, the challenges confronting the state’s Medicaid system will remain a forefront issue. For this reason, it is important to understand how Florida’s Medicaid program has fared during the public health emergency and what economic challenges lie ahead as the state goes forward in recovery.

COVID-19 AND MEDICAID’S SURGING ENROLLMENT

Medicaid operates in a countercyclical manner—during times of economic downturn, enrollment and spending increase even as public revenues tend to fall. Alternatively, when the economy is growing, fewer people enroll in the program and spending declines. Throughout large scale recessions, as seen over the past year, growing unemployment precedes a subsequent rise in Medicaid enrollment as individuals lose their source of income, and in many cases, their employer sponsored insurance. For every percentage point increase in national unemployment, an estimated one million more people enroll in Medicaid. For Florida, the state’s economy lost 1.1 million jobs throughout 2020, hitting a peak unemployment rate of 14.2 percent. Medicaid enrollment quickly followed.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, Medicaid enrollment in Florida has risen by 885,000, or about 23.5 percent. As of February 2021 (latest data available), enrollment stood at 4.6 million. According to the Office of Economic and Demographic Research (EDR), Medicaid enrollment is expected to continue climbing in the year ahead, eventually leveling off in 2022 due to a gradual labor market recovery as workers reclaim more jobs. Yet at the moment, enrollment appears to be steadily increasing.

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