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

/ Categories: Research, Broward BOC

Monitoring and Oversight of General Obligation Bonds to Improve Broward County Schools: Q3 2021-22

SMART Program Quarterly Report Review for the Quarter Ended March 31, 2022

As Florida TaxWatch reports the Broward Public School District’s progress in implementing the SMART Program for the quarter ended March 31, 2022, the school year will have ended and students will have begun their summer break. The May 24 mass murder of 19 students and two adults at an elementary school in Texas will undoubtedly weigh heavily on the minds of Broward students and their families as the 2022-23 school year approaches.

The safety and security component of the SMART Program includes projects designed to limit access to each school through a single point-of-entry, which are in place at all Broward County public schools. Other safety and security projects include fire alarms and sprinklers, emergency exit signage/lighting improvements, fencing, and door hardware. These improvements are bundled together as part of active Primary Renovations projects, many of which are behind their original schedule and over their original budget. Florida TaxWatch is taking a “deeper dive” into the status of the outstanding safety and security projects.

Higher rates of inflation, higher roofing and mechanical/electrical/fire protection costs, and items that were excluded from the original scopes of work will undoubtedly continue to increase the costs of the active Primary Renovations projects. Florida TaxWatch considers controlling project costs and mitigating the additional financial risk to be the greatest challenge facing the District at this point as SMART Program implementation moves forward.

Florida TaxWatch is pleased to present the following report, which includes the Florida TaxWatch review of the District’s Bond Oversight Committee Quarterly Report for the Quarter Ended March 31, 2022. 

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