Florida Judge pulls Amendment 5 off the November ballot

One again the Florida Association of Realtors has backed a losing horse - with one heck of a lot of money raised by Florida Realtors themselves, but with NO QUESTION being asked of the Realtors before the money was spent!

Amendment Five was to appear on the Ballot in Florida in November and was in simplistic terms, a tax swap - property tax to be replaced by sales tax. It was placed on the ballot by the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission - a body which meets just once every 20 years!

Anyway, "The court finds that the ballot title and summary provided in the proposition for Amendment 5 fail to fairly inform the voter, in a clear and unambiguous language, of the chief purposes of the amendment and the language of the title and summary, as written, is misleading in the foregoing respects," U.S. Circuit Court Judge John C. Cooper wrote in his opinion.

And now once again Florida's property tax system is a complete mess. In January Amendment One was passed (with at least $1m of support from the Florida Association of Realtors). Taxes were supposed to come down. Mine just went UP!

Watch this space for more information as the situation unfolds. The appeal process has already begun.

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(Copyright © 2008 By Simon L Conway All Rights Reserved.)

Please give me a call if you have questions about the Central Florida real estate market. You can reach me on 407 876 8200. Also visit my web site at www.simonconway.net or www.move2orlando.net