Florida Taxwatch Chairman, Pat Neal, and President & CEO, Dominic Calabro, explain why on behalf of literally every resident of the Sunshine State, Floridians must vote “yes” on Amendment 2. Renters, business owners and consumers will be in for a major property tax increase if it fails to pass.
Remember the last special legislative session when the world was abuzz with the news that $100 million more was being added to the schools budget? Now, imagine at least 20 times that amount being added every year. It could happen.
Florida’s General Revenue (GR) Estimating Conference met on August 16 and forecast that the state would collect $13.1 million less than expected in FY2018-19 and $19.5 million less in FY2019-20. This reduces the estimated GR that the Legislature will have for the next state budget by $32.6 million, a change of less than one-tenth of 1 percent.
Actual net GR collections for the fiscal year that that just ended exceeded the last estimate (February 2018, adjusted for legislative changes) by $205.2 million (0.66 percent). This will be added to the unobligated FY2018-19 GR (cash reserve) balance of $1.026 billion to be carried forward to the next budget year (FY2019-20). These numbers, along with the current cycle of the state’s Estimating Conferences, can begin to define the fiscal outlook for the next state budget that will be developed by the 2019 Legislature.
The 2018 Legislature passed a $88.727 billion state budget—the General Appropriations Act (GAA)—which recently took effect on July 1. But that doesn’t tell the whole story of what was spent by lawmakers last session. While the GAA price tag gets all the publicity, other appropriations can go largely unnoticed.
Today, Florida TaxWatch released the Taxpayers’ Budget Guide to the FY2018-19 state budget, which went into effect July 1, 2018.
Florida TaxWatch recently convened some of Florida’s top educational leaders to discuss improving the leadership in our public school principals and today a summary report of that discussion in available publicly. The summary report , released today, includes the discussed strategies, a review of related educational literature, and a number of takeaways for consideration by policymakers and education professionals.
In April 2018, TaxWatch convened a 90-minute education roundtable in Orlando to discuss ways to improve the overall quality of pre-K–12 education by improving the leadership qualities of our public school principals. Joining the nine current PLA-winning principals were three former PLA-winning principals, the Chair of the State Board of Education, one current and one former member of the Florida House of Representatives, and a number of business and community leaders from across the state.
Reaction and explanation of SCOTUS decision from Robert Weissert, Esq. and Kurt Wenner
Florida TaxWatch President and CEO Dominic M. Calabro released the following statement regarding the Supreme Court’s decision to allow states to collect sales taxes from online retailers –
The U.S. Supreme Court has issued a ruling that paves the way for a successful resolution to an issue Florida TaxWatch has fought for more than 15 years.
Today, Florida TaxWatch released the 2018 edition of the How Florida Compares: Taxes report. For several years, TaxWatch has published this easy-to-use guide to help Floridians better understand their state through comparing our state’s taxes to those that are levied across the nation. The How Florida Compares: Taxes report provides nonpartisan information on where Florida ranks and contains nearly 40 tables, graphs, and charts that provide a comprehensive look at tax collections and other government revenues for all 50 states.
The 2018 Edition of this annual pocket guide gives taxpayers and elected officials great insight as to how Florida’s taxes compare to other states and the national average across a wide variety of metrics.
The state’s premier taxpayer research institute, Florida TaxWatch, has appointed one of Florida’s most respected government relations counselors to its Board of Trustees. Fausto Gomez, President of Gomez Barker Advisors, joins the Tallahassee-based watchdog organization. He presently serves as a public affairs professional successfully representing businesses and governments in Florida.
Designing effective workforce development policy requires drawing on the wealth of knowledge provided by academic and scientific research; the purpose of this paper is to stitch the relevant literature together so as to develop a comprehensive approach to workforce development.
Distributed to the Bond Oversight Committee on May 21, 2018, this report examines the SMART program quarterly report for Q3 of FY2018.
Florida TaxWatch has announced the winners of the 2018 Prudential Productivity Awards at a press conference in its offices in Tallahassee. Established in 1989, the Prudential Productivity Awards program is designed to highlight and reward state employees who innovatively reduce costs and improve services for Florida taxpayers.
A new report from the state’s independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit government watchdog and taxpayer research institute, Florida TaxWatch, shows that failure to make permanent the non-homestead exemption cap could result in Floridians paying as much as $700 million more in property taxes annually. However, Florida voters will have the chance to protect themselves from higher property taxes by voting “yes” on Amendment 2 this November.
In November 2018, Florida voters have a chance avoid a major property tax increase on owners of commercial or rental property, vacation or second homes, unimproved real estate, or any other non- homestead property. This tax increase will happen if the current 10 percent cap on non-homestead property assessments—scheduled to be repealed—is not reauthorized by the voters.
As the third largest state in the country and one of the fastest growing, the upcoming Federal Census count will be more important to the Sunshine State than nearly any other state. If Florida is under-represented by the decennial population count, it could cost the state billions of dollars. Although most people think of the 2020 Census as a long way off, Florida’s state and local officials need to immediately start ensuring the accuracy of the count by participating in existing intergovernmental processes to verify addresses and residences.
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