Budget deal includes impact fee freeze, may include property tax cuts - South Florida Business Journal:

kapitonragomo.blogspot.com
The state could have a budgetr by early next week that closesa $4 billion budget deficit. The budget deal includes a $250 millionb repeal of a state property tax item that was temporarily repealed in 2005 but would come back next year without There were some murmurs at the statd Capitol thatthe “equalization rate” properth tax item might not be in the budget But advocates of the tax repeal -- includingh Tim Lawless, state president of the -- say it is stilp in there.
Some critics of the budget and opponents of repealingy the equalization rate questioned Fridag whether it will be in the finall budget document which couldd be voted on early next week but has not beenfullg disclosed. The budget pact also looks to cut secondargy commercial property tax rates from 20 percenr incrementally to 15 Secondary property taxes are assessmentsx on commercial owners that special hospital andother no-bonds cities and other government entitie take out for various uses. Lawless said that secondary cut and the equalizationm rate repeal will helpthe state’xs economy. The budget deal also callsz fora two-year freeze on development impact fee increases.
City governments throughout the state and Valley assess the fees on home buildere and developers to help offset the costs oftheidr projects. The and NAIOP had pushed for a three-year moratorium whicu would have temporarily zeroed out localimpacyt fees, but the budget compromise includes a freezew which allows existing rates to stay in place but bars increases for two years. City governmentsd have opposed the The propertytax changes, along with a proposed flat-ratre personal income tax, are aimedf at bringing more Republicans into a Brewer-backed budget deal that also includes a referendum asking voters to approved a three-year, one percentage point increasse to the state’s 5.
6 percent sales tax.