Florida voters think the proposal to replace local property taxes with an increased sales tax is a “bad idea” and deep cuts in government budgets are a better alternative, a new poll released Thursday shows.
The poll, by the independent research arm of Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, found that voters reject the House Republicans’ controversial idea to exchange property taxes for higher sales taxes – but they like their idea of rolling back local government spending to 2001 levels.
The poll results are one more blow to the tax-swap plan, which is in serious trouble in the Senate, where leaders have all but rejected it, and in the House, where many Republicans privately say they don’t want to vote for it.
Voters may offer some direction: According to the poll, they prefer the rollback idea 69 percent to 23 percent, and oppose by a 48 percent to 44 percent margin eliminating the property tax on primary homes and replacing it with a 2.5 cent increase in the sales tax.
The divide was narrow when voters were asked if they are willing to accept lower government services in exchange for tax cuts. There, 49 percent of homeowners were willing to accept cuts, while 40 percent were opposed. Renters said they did not support cuts in services by a 44 percent to 40 percent margin.
Also popular: a constitutional amendment that would allow homeowners to take their “Save Our Homes” cap on tax assessments with them when they move; voters support such a “portability” concept by a 62 percent to 28 percent margin.
Less popular: a plan to repeal the “Save Our Homes” cap, which gives longtime homeowners a 3 percent cap on the increase of their annual tax assessment. Voters supported that idea 46 percent to 44 percent, but that is within the survey’s margin of error.
The poll of 1,061 Florida voters conducted March 21-27 had a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.
The poll also quizzed voters about Gov. Charlie Crist, and the results were overwhelmingly positive: The Republican governor won the approval of 82 percent of Republicans, 71 percent of Democrats and 71 percent of independent voters. One in five Floridians, however, still had not made up their minds.
“Florida voters think he has kept his word to lower their property insurance rates and are optimistic he will do the same to their property taxes,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
In an open-ended question, voters indicated that property taxes have surpassed property insurance as the top concern of most Floridians. And both issues are more important today than education – a perennial top priority of voters on most polls in the past.
The survey also found what government and business groups have been telling lawmakers all month during the legislative session: Property tax relief should not be limited to homeowners. Voters say by a 70 percent to 24 percent margin that small businesses should also get a tax break this year.
Most voters don’t think renters and landlords deserve relief, however: Sixty-three percent opposed passing property tax breaks to renters and 54 percent opposed extending it to landlords.
Florida legislators have made property tax cuts their top priority this legislative session but, as they approach the half-way mark next week, they still have not reached a consensus on the best solution.
by: The Miami Herald, Mary Ellen Klas
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