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

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Taxpayers Deserve More Than Checking The Box

Florida taxpayers and their children are facing more than $10.5 billion in debt due to increasingly rich and consistently over-promised government pensions.

These obligations will be paid by taxpayers who don't have access to similar benefits in the private sector, because pension plan beneficiaries take on no risk, yet the taxpayers indemnify losses. State laws have forced hard-working taxpayers into larger losses because of their mandates to increase required local government benefits.

The Florida Legislature is preparing to address bloated government pension costs this year, but it is important they pursue solutions that do not create more unintended consequences for current and future taxpayers.

Both the Senate and the House are considering a local pension bill that does contain some provisions to increase accountability and oversight, but their proposals do not ensure Florida's local government pension system is stable and secure, nor do they cap costs for Florida taxpayers.

While the Legislature is mulling technical changes that don't result in real pension reform, there are cities in Florida that are paying more for retirement and past service than they are paying today for salaries of police and fire officers protecting our communities because of the impact of state mandates.

There are also cities that are paying hundreds of retirees thousands of dollars in bonus retirement checks while their pension plan remains hundreds of millions of dollars in debt. Still others have employees including more than seven weeks of overtime pay into their pensions, resulting in their annual pension benefits exceeding their annual salary.

These are the issues that the Legislature should address to combat ballooning local government pension debt. Fixing these loopholes would prevent retirees from gaming the system at the expense of their fellow community members who are struggling to provide for their own hoped-for retirement.

While House and Senate leaders debate the future of local government pensions in 2015, it is important that this year's reforms are only a small step toward financial security and retirement stability for all Floridians.

With a first step toward reform this year, I hope lawmakers will be poised next year to embrace fiscal responsibility and truly protect the promises made to retirees without unfairly burdening the taxpayers of today and tomorrow.

Dominic M. Calabro is the president and CEO of Florida TaxWatch, an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit public policy research institute and government watchdog. Florida TaxWatch is a member of the Taxpayers for Sustainable Pensions, a diverse coalition of business and policy groups dedicated to municipal pension reform in Florida. Learn more about the coalition here.

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