Amendment 2 that Florida voters will be asked to consider when they head to the polls in November is perhaps the least controversial, though critics insist it isn’t an appropriate subject for a state Constitution and will cost local governments millions of dollars in lost revenue.

The Florida Veterans Property Tax Amendment (or Amendment 2) would extend current constitutional homestead property tax exemptions to all combat- disabled veterans age 65 or older, even if they were not residents of the Sunshine State at the time of their enlistment.

Under current state constitutional law, elderly veterans, who were Florida residents at the time of their enlistment and who are disabled from combat-related injuries, receive a property tax exemption on their homes that is proportional to the degree to which they are disabled. For example, such older veterans who have a 50 percent disability, pay only half of their homestead property tax assessment.

If passed, Amendment 2 would extend these tax breaks to all elderly disabled veterans, regardless of whether they were Floridians when they enlisted.

The Florida statutes contain other benefits, not enshrined in the state Constitution, for various classes of disabled veterans. For example, any veteran with at least a 10 percent disability can have $5,000 deducted off the value of their property before their taxes are calculated, and all veterans with total (100 percent) disability don’t pay any property taxes at all on their homes. These two statutory exemptions apply to veterans of any age, even those who were not Floridians at their time of enlistment.

"We are a very veteran-friendly state. People throughout the United States know that,” says Rep. Jimmie T. Smith, R-Inverness, a principal supporter of the amendment and a disabled veteran himself, in an interview with Sunshine State News. “So we legislators thought it would be a good idea to offer an additional benefit like a tax break, as a way of asking veterans to come down and help Florida’s economy by buying homes and living here.”

Smith co-sponsored the legislation that placed Amendment 2 on the ballot, and it passed both the Florida House of Representatives and the Florida Senate with unanimous bipartisan support.

But not everyone thinks Amendment 2 is a good idea.

“[Our] position is that there should be no increase or extension of homestead exemption,” reads a statement on the website of the League of Women Voters of Florida. “[Our] position states that no tax sources or revenues should be specified, limited, exempted, or prohibited in the Constitution. This amendment, if passed, would cost local governments $15 million over the first three years of implementation.”

Smith disagrees.

“I don’t see this as a loss of revenue,” he says. “If no one is buying our homes in the first place, you’re not losing revenue. We want people to move to Florida by filling those holes in our housing market. We think that [Amendment 2] will actually be a revenue generator.”

 

Asked why he believed the exemption would not be better realized as a statute, Smith says “we want these tax breaks to be secure, and the best way we can do a thing in Florida is to make sure they are cemented in the Constitution, not just simply a policy ploy back-and-forth with each new Legislature.”

For Smith, it’s not just a question of economic benefit to the state, but one of fundamental values.

“You can never thank a veteran enough, especially a combat-wounded veteran,” he insists. “When you see these men and women coming back wounded all the time, with all the pain and suffering they have to live with on a daily basis, you can never compensate them enough for that.”

Reach Eric Giunta at egiunta@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.