Florida lawmakers announce $31.6 billion tax cut plan

Saturday, June 9, 2007

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Florida lawmakers have announced a plan to cut property taxes by $31.6 billion.

Senate president Ken Pruitt and House speaker Marco Rubio announced the plan late Friday, saying the tax cut would be the largest in state history.

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The complete plan

The full legislature will discuss the proposal in a two-week special session that begins Tuesday.

The plan would create a new super homestead exemption that would protect 75 percent of the first $200,000 of a primary home's value, and 15 percent of the next $300,000. The minimum exemption would be $50,000.

The proposal would also roll back city and county spending. Some cities would have to cut their budgets by 9 percent and others would see no rollback.

The factor that would decide how much cities would have to cut their budgets would be how much they allowed taxes to rise between 2001 and 2006. Home values grew rapidly during that time, flooding government coffers with cash.

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