Broward Schools & Property Tax Edition: Capitol to Courthouse Headliners

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Tax-fix plan offers pains, gains

Voters have amended Florida’s modern-day Constitution 109 times. But few changes have helped — or harmed — as many homes, lives and schools as could the Jan. 29 initiative to revamp the state’s property tax system.

 

Taxes cut; more may come

The Florida Legislature passed the biggest property-tax cut in state history Thursday amid partisan quarrels about relieving over-taxed citizens and gutting schools and emergency services.

 

Cities Aren’t Sweating Tax Cuts

PANAMA CITY BEACH – City Manager Richard Jackson sympathizes with other local government officials across Florida who are grappling with property tax cuts ordered by the Legislature, but he won’t be joining them.

 

Miami-Dade weighs reducing annual raises

Healthy annual raises are more than a tradition in Miami-Dade County government — for most employees, guaranteed cost-of-living increases and liberal merit raises are guaranteed in labor contracts.

 

Counting all those dollars

County budgeting glitch makes it harder to maintain the public’s trust

The Legislature’s tax reform plan already has put local governments on edge, waiting for slowly released details critical to budgets that must be ready for review this fall.

 

Belt-tightening, not a crisis

Zephyrhills will avoid layoffs and service cuts in complying with state tax rollback.

ZEPHYRHILLS – During the good years, when property values and tax revenues were swelling like ocean waves, the city hired workers, bought land and put new police cars on the road.

 

No Layoffs Expected Because Of Tax Reform

PLANT CITY – After weeks of hand-wringing and number-crunching, commissioners were presented recently with details on how the state’s revamped property tax structure affects city revenues.

 

No cuts for Panama City Beach, other towns without property tax

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. — City Manager Richard Jackson sympathizes with other local government officials across Florida who are grappling with property tax cuts ordered by the Legislature, but he won’t be joining them.

 

Homeowner choice clouds tax revenue predictions

TALLAHASSEE — When lawmakers tweaked their $16 billion property tax-cut plan to give homeowners the option of hanging onto their Save Our Homes benefits, they also tweaked the price tag: downward.

 

Concerns over budget spur talks of cutback at meeting

Discussion of budget restrictions coming because of property-tax relief dominated the monthly nonzoning meeting of the Westchester Community Council on Wednesday night.

 

Couple may lose home over $1.63 tax bill

A $1.63 property tax bill that never reached its destination in 1996 has turned into a nightmare for Kermit and Dolores Atwood, who are now trying to keep from losing their home over the unpaid notice.

 

Hundreds won’t get prepaid-tuition break

Hundreds of Florida parents tried to avoid a big tuition bump at the most popular public universities by enrolling in the state’s prepaid college program last month. But they were too late.

 

‘I’ grades leave schools in limbo

After five years as an A-rated school, Hollywood Hills Elementary received an incomplete grade last month because 16 students’ FCAT scores were flagged as irregular — a question mark that could cost the school thousands of dollars.

 

For autistic kids, a new option in schools

Kevin Gersh’s pitch — ”customized education” — rang true for the parents who packed Overtown’s Temple Israel on a recent Thursday.

 

No Child law’s authors work on a revision

Respond to complaints

WASHINGTON — The landmark No Child Left Behind law, which has drawn impassioned criticism from educators and parents unhappy with its stringent requirements for public schools to raise students’ test scores, is being rewritten on Capitol Hill to fix what the bill’s authors now acknowledge are flaws.

 

Letters to the Editor:

Local officials hysteria over tax-cut plan predictable

We could have predicted it. No sooner had the ink dried on the legislation in Tallahassee mandating a reduction in local spending and property taxes than the politicians are hysterical in their frantic search for new revenues.

Weston mayor’s petition against tax reform vote questioned

Re the July 10 article, “Weston mayor sues to fight property tax cuts, statewide referendum”: