John R
needs to get out more
While lobster and stone crab catches held steady at the docks over the last decade, property taxes at Manny's Sea Food went skyward as new condos rose near the Miami River.
Owner Manny Prieguez could do little about it, because state law basically requires counties to assess properties for what is known as their ''highest and best use'' -- rather than their actual use.
''So I've been getting taxed as if I was going to build a condo any day now, not running a seafood business'' Prieguez said. ``It's all crazy.''
Perhaps not for long. On Nov. 4, voters will decide on a proposed constitutional amendment designed to shield so-called ''working waterfronts'' from hefty tax assessments.
Recent polls suggest Amendment 6 will likely get 60 percent of the vote, the required threshold for passage.
Under the proposal, publicly accessible marinas, waterfront marine-manufacturing facilities and commercial fishing businesses would be taxed based on their current use, not what the property could become. Waterfront residences would not be covered.
Estimated statewide tax savings for all working waterfronts: $70 million to $80 million next year, according to the Legislature's Economic and Demographic Research division. Five-year savings: up to $350 million.
No one is sure of the exact savings because the Legislature will have to write laws to put the amendment into effect if it passes. The more broadly lawmakers interpret it, the bigger the business savings and the bigger the revenue hit to local governments and schools.
That said, opposition is scarce. Even the Florida Education Association, which successfully opposed two other constitutional amendments this year, hasn't taken a position on the amendment, though it could take about $30 million annually from schools statewide every year.
The amendment was proposed along with six others by the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, which has the power to directly place amendments on the ballot. The commission acted at the urging of marina associations and commercial fishermen who said high assessments were all but forcing them to sell out to condo developers, thereby reducing public access to the water.
The marine industry had an economic impact of as much as $18 billion a year in the state when the economy was booming, employing 220,000 people, said Keyna Cory, chief lobbyist for Associated Industries of Florida.
''It's not that they don't want to pay taxes,'' Cory said. ``It's just that they want to pay their fair share. Some of these businesses have been passed from generation to generation.''
Prieguez, a former Miami legislator and lobbyist, said he began paying more than his fair share when the Neo River Lofts were built. His tax assessments at Manny's Sea Food started to jump, and now his $53,000 tax bill is almost double what it was in 2003. But the amendment won't mean big savings for everyone on the water.
In the Keys, the property appraiser says, he already can't assess marinas as if they were condos because state growth-management laws make it tough to add more residences. So the change could be minimal.
Broward County's property appraiser, Lori Parrish, said she also uses a different interpretation of the state's highest-and-best-use standard that enables her to assess marinas at their current use. Palm Beach County's property appraiser, Gary Nikolits, whose waterfront assessments are often higher than Parrish's, sparred with the Broward appraiser last spring over her methods.
Max Fricker, owner of an eight-acre marina in Palm Beach Gardens, clearly can't wait for help. From 2005 to 2006, his bill nearly doubled, jumping from $107,000 to almost $199,000 -- and that's after he and a slew of waterfront property owners in the area banded together to fight Nikolits' assessments.
All along, Fricker said, he has had to eat the higher tax bill. ''There's no way you can pass on that kind of an increase among your customers. They'll scream,'' he said.
There's less shouting in Miami-Dade because many of the working waterfronts were long ago converted to condos. The sponsor of the amendment, Sen. Gwen Margolis -- who is running for Miami-Dade property appraiser -- incorrectly assumed it would apply to small residential waterfront properties, which it does not. But she said in an interview that, if elected, she would lower assessments anyway by using more of Parrish's approach.
At Manny's Sea Food, Prieguez said he'll take whatever relief he can get.
''I don't want to build a condo. I don't want to be taxed like I'm building a condo. And neither do the fishermen who work for us,'' he said.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/story/735876.html
I think most of the amendments are generally good ideas.