Tax gaffe

From the Miami Herald-

When lawmakers exempted several cities from a required rollback of property tax rates, they mistakenly included Miami and will fix the gaffe next year, said House Speaker Marco Rubio.

Miami was included in the list along with mostly smaller towns that are exempted from having to roll back their rates because of financial hardship.

The exemption for Miami, first reported by the St. Petersburg Times, was a mistake, legislators said. Initially, they projected that Miami would have to cut its rate 9 percent to comply with the new law. But when the rollback amounts were published, Miami's was zero.

Rubio, R-West Miami, said the Legislature will fix it next year, meaning Miami will still have to find about $23 million to cut from its budget.

The legislation exempted cities that had been in financial crisis -- which Miami was a few years ago. The time when Miami was considered still in crisis fell just inside the cutoff date in the legislation, and lawmakers said the exemption wasn't intended. The city collected more than $250 million in property taxes this year.

Just further proof legislators pass laws without reading them or knowing what provisions the bill contains.

Until the fix can be made, Rubio said he would pressure Miami city commissioners to prepare to make the budget cuts in anticipation of being forced to cut taxes.

Yes that's going to happen Mr. Speaker. It will also snow in Florida next month and TFM will get a Pulitzer prize for blogging too.

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