DISMAL BUDGET DAMPENS MOOD IN TALLAHASSEE

GREENBELT IN FLUX

Don’t expect to hear a gobbling noise in Tallahassee this year. The “turkeys,” or pet projects, will not be showing up. Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, R-West Miami, says so.

It’s not a year for getting rid of barrier island bridge tolls or building new community centers. In a letter sent a couple of weeks before the 2007 legislative session, Speaker Rubio said that state economists had bad news. Back in November, they had estimated a $467 million dip in state revenues for the budget year that begins in July. But when the tax math was all said and done, it turned out that even that figure was optimistic -by about $160 million.

Sales tax revenues and a drop in the documentary stamp tax on real estate transactions were to blame. Whatever the cause, the news wasn’t good.

Up in the air are bills of concern to the agriculture industry covering issues as diverse as pesticide registration fees, migrant housing, tax exemptions and the assessment of agricultural lands.

Here’s a rundown on what’s out there for consideration. FFVA Producer Members who would like more details should refer to the weekly Governmental Affairs Bulletin sent via mail and e-mail (as well as posted here at ffva.com) every Friday during the session.

HOMETOWN DEMOCRACY

For the past few years, a new political group called “Hometown Democracy," headed by two Tallahassee lawyers and a south Florida environmentalist, has been working on a campaign to place a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot. The group’s efforts were booted off the ballot in 2005 when the Florida Supreme Court rejected an initial ballot summary. The group got over its disappointment, however, and resubmitted revised language for the proposed constitutional amendment last year, which the attorney general and the Supreme Court finally approved.

Butch Calhoun, FFVA’s director of Governmental Affairs, says the Hometown Democracy amendment could cripple the state's economy.

Hometown Democracy’s petition drive would put an amendment on the ballot requiring every comprehensive plan change in every city and county in the state to be pre-approved by voter referendum. That’s something to think about. Leslie Blackner, one of the Hometown Democracy leaders, told Florida Trend magazine that she was motivated to start the drive because she saw Florida falling into the hands of developers. “We have government of the developer by the developer and for the developer,” she told a reporter.

Well-planned development is important, but what would this movement really accomplish? “It would cripple Florida’s economy by choking investment in our communities,” said Butch Calhoun, director of FFVA's Governmental Affairs Division. “It’s an assault on America’s system of representative democracy, and it could stifle free enterprise,” he said. The Governmental Affairs Division recently sent a special edition of its bulletin to FFVA Producer Members urging them not to sign the Hometown Democracy petition if it’s presented to them.

CONSISTENTLY APPLIED SALES TAX EXEMPTIONS

Last year, growers were exempted from paying sales tax on electricity used on a farm directly for production. That’s all well and good, but the job wasn’t quite finished. Efforts are under way to spread sales tax exemptions to electricity used indirectly for the production or processing of agricultural products on a farm, for irrigation equipment and systems, and for building materials used to construct non-residential farm structures.  FFVA also opposes another bill that would create a sales tax for ostrich feed.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

FFVA is closely watching several bills that would affect how agriculture and the environment co-exist. One would expand the Lake Okeechobee Protection Plan to include the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers and their estuaries and improve water quality in the lake’s watershed. Another bill would provide for the issuance of Everglades restoration bonds to fund that program.

Also in the works are changes in wetlands permitting, which would consolidate federal and state requirements, and another bill that would create a Florida Springs Commission to identify problems in certain springs in the state.

AND THERE’S THE GREENBELT ISSUE

Two bills up for consideration would affect the “greenbelt,” or agricultural classification of certain property. Greenbelt is often thought of as a tax exemption, but that’s not the case. Agricultural lands are taxed and assessed based upon their production, not their highest and best use. In spite of some well-publicized abuses of the classification, the greenbelt law remains vital to the state’s agriculture industry.

Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Charles Bronson says he’s still backing the Farm to Fuel initiative in spite of budget difficulties.

One of the bills introduced this session would revise the provisions governing the classification of ag lands for ad valorem tax assessments, and the other would specifically deny the classification to those landowners who fail to demonstrate in certain ways that all workers hired are of legal status. It would require those landowners to provide information that demonstrates compliance with “federal work authorization” as a condition of “licensure, certification, or registration.” FFVA is working hard to kill these bills simply because they would impose unrealistic requirements on producers.

“FARM TO FUEL” STILL ALIVE

In spite of the gloom-and-doom budget projections, Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Charles Bronson says he’s still backing the Farm to Fuel initiative, which aims to fulfill a quarter of the state’s energy needs with alternative fuels by 2025. It’s similar to the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture’s “25 X 25” program. He foresees a huge marketing opportunity for Florida growers as producers of the feed stocks for cellulosic ethanol, which could be made of everything from citrus waste to yard trash.

PROPERTY TAX WHIRLWIND AFFECTS EVERYONE

Gov. Charlie Crist favors doubling the homestead exemption as a way to lower property taxes.

One major topic of discussion in Tallahassee this session is property taxes. Gov. Charlie Crist wants to double the homestead exemption from $25,000 to $50,000. Once considered radical, that proposal is now overshadowed by some legislators’ efforts, including a move to eliminate the property tax altogether and replace the lost revenue with an increased sales tax. Another proposal would give renters a subsidy.

Those proposals would need to be approved by three-fourths of the Legislature in order to go to voters. Then they would have to receive 60 percent of voter approval.

Special committees have been meeting to consider the various property tax initiatives, and so far no one proposal is seen as a shoo-in. “The full effects of these radical proposals have everybody scrambling to come up with the answers,” Calhoun said.

One of those elusive answers sought is how any of the tax-saving ideas would affect the assessment of agricultural lands. “Partisan lines are sure to emerge. There will be heated debates, and a host of amendments will be passed before this controversial issue is settled,” said Calhoun.

Stay tuned.