Property tax amendment too close to call
A solid majority of Floridians are in favor of the proposed constitutional amendment that will be on the ballot in January, but it still might not pass.
That's the implication of a survey of voters done by the University of Florida. Fifty-eight percent of the respondents to the survey said they support the property tax amendment, but that's still short of the 60 percent super majority needed to pass amendments to the state constitution.
When voters go to the polls Jan. 29 for the presidential primary, they will also face a referendum. If passed, the measure would allow homeowners to choose between keeping the Save Our Homes provision that caps property tax increases at 3 percent annually and a new provision that would drastically increase their homestead exemption. The "super exemption" would knock off 75 percent of the first $200,000 of a home's value and 15 percent of the next $300,000.
"Whether the amendment will pass remains a wide open question," says David Denslow, an economic professor at UF who led the research. "Besides the statistical insignificance of the difference between 58 and 60 percent."
UF's Survey Research Center added questions in July about the amendment to its monthly consumer confidence survey. Of the 287 homeowners who responded, 277 had an opinion. The homeowners were also asked the selling price of their homes.
Fifty-four percent of Democrats favored the amendment, with support rising to 58 percent for independents and 64 percent for Republicans. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
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