 |
Amendment I Provisions and
Questions
We received
many questions related to
“Amendment I” over the first
half of the year and during an
IFAS Stewardship videoconference
in June.
In late January of this
year, voters approved
Constitutional Amendment I.
The required implementing
legislation followed from the
2008 Legislature.
While none of the four
provisions resulted in changes
to Florida’s
Agricultural
Classification/Greenbelt law,
some of the provisions, however,
may directly or indirectly
affect properties and
agricultural businesses with Greenbelt.
Provisions
for increase in the
Homestead
Exemption and portability of the
Save-Our-Homes
assessment limitation benefits
may lower a county’s revenue
base and potentially
increase,
in context, the ad valorem tax
rate.
The exemption increase
does not apply to school taxes.
For a
Greenbelt
property with Homestead
Exemption, the portability
applies only to the values of
the portion receiving the
assessment limitation benefits
(house and yard).
Greenbelt benefits are not portable.
Amendment I
provides a Tangible Personal
Property exemption of $25,000
for businesses, but is not
applicable to homesteaded
property or the homesteaded
portion of a
Greenbelt
property.
And finally,
Amendment I provides a 10%
cap or limit on annual
assessment increases for
non-homestead property,
effective 2009, but does not
apply to school millage levies.
Does the cap provision
include acreage under Greenbelt assessment?
No, Classified Use (Greenbelt) land is excluded from the cap provisions.
If a property loses
Greenbelt,
what affect does the cap limit
have on the resulting
non-Greenbelt assessment?
Department of Revenue
personnel advised all the follow
up
Rules
to the implementing legislation
have not been prepared yet (May
30); however, in the year a
property loses Greenbelt, it
will likely be reappraised at
the established current market
value with no coverage by the
10% cap.
For example, if a
property with a 2008 $200 per
acre
Greenbelt value and
an $8,000 per acre market value
loses
Greenbelt
for 2009, the taxable value will
be the assessed market value,
not $220 per acre.
|
