Realty Blog

The Florida Supreme Court decided Wednesday to consider whether a proposed constitutional amendment on property taxes should be place on Jan. 29th ballot.

The court asked Gov. Charlie Crist's office to file a brief by Tuesday explaining why a lower court erred when it called the state;s ballot language "misleading" and struck the proposal for bigger homestead exemptions from the ballot.

The first hearing will be Dec. 3.

All week, lawmakers have been struggling to craft a new property tax proposal to substitute for the one rejected by the lower court. But negotiations between the House and Senate are stymied with both chambers deciding not to take up the issue again until Monday.

But they are facing a deadline of Tuesday at 11:59 p.m. giving them little time to reach an agreement.

The deadline is required by the state constitution which states that ballot questions must be submitted more than 90 days before the election. The property tax amendment would be added to the Jan. 29th presidential primary ballot.

"We're already making arrangements to have staff available through the night Tuesday, if needed," said Secretary of State Kurt Browning spokesman Sterling Ivey.

Lawmakers had been expected to easily reach agreement this week. But the House revamped its property tax proposal much to the annoyance of Senate Leaders who believed they already had an agreement.

Senate President Ken Pruitt decided this morning to send his members home until Monday. Hours later, House Speaker Marco Rubio did the same thing.

Crist tried to put a good face on the impasse.

"Mondays can be very good," said Crit, who had podded lawmakers to return to the Capitol for their second special session on property taxes this year.

Senate Majority Leader Dan Webster said House leaders broke the deal, and Senate President Ken Pruitt has refused to bring his chamber back to debate the House plan. The Senate has not met since Thursday.

Pruitt sent a memo to senators on Wednesday Day 13 of the special session saying the chamber would not meet until Monday "if we return."

"We have reason to be cautiously optimistic, "Pruitt said. "However, there is still much work to be done and the time clock is not our friend."

Mike Bender, Palm Beach Post