TAX NEWS - June 2010

Florida Tax: Ford joins appraisers in seeking tax relief

Rep. Clay Ford of Gulf Breeze joined Wednesday with Greg Brown and Chris Jones – the property appraisers from Santa Rosa and Escambia counties – to ask Gov. Charlie Crist to include in the possible call for a special legislative session a proposal to impose tax relief for property owners affected by the BP oil disaster.

It's expected that both commercial and residential property values will be negatively affected by the oil spill, which is now in its seventh week

When property values decline, affected citizens should be allowed some adjustment to their tax burden, the leaders contend. Affected counties should expect reimbursement for that revenue loss from BP.

An anticipated loss of property value prompted Brown and Jones on June 2 to request tax relief for local property owners for the 2010 year. The appraisers initially asked for an executive order that would grant tax relief for the 2010 year.

Tentative loss in property values caused by the oil spill would not be reflected until the 2011 tax roll under existing law.

"Therefore, there will be no accounting for this loss in 2010 unless executive or legislative action is taken," the appraisers' joint letter stated.

Property values are based on the values set by the county property appraisers on Jan. 1 of each year. Because the oil was not an issue in January, the values will not reflect the effects of the oil until January 2011.

"If you conclude an executive order is not the proper manner for granting such relief," the letter said, "we ask that you call for a special legislative session. The spill also is likely to impact other counties as the oil spreads."

Oil reached the beaches of Northwest Florida last week. It was spreading eastward toward Bay County earlier this week.

Brown and Jones want immediate relief. Jones said a precedent was set after the hurricanes of 2004 including Ivan.

"They did something similar then that was done retroactively back to give relief in that tax year," Jones said. "We ask that the citizens not be held responsible for the change in value. We are asking for that to be passed on to BP."