salesmanship

Let's work on this one.
In recent years dozens of Florida wet-slip marinas, waterfront dry stack storage facilities and boat service yards have been squeezed out of business by huge increases in real estate taxes, leaving you and your fellow boaters with fewer and fewer places to keep your boats and higher slip fees and storage costs.

Why is this happening? Because the current property appraisal system in Florida forces counties to apply "highest and best use" value to waterfront business property, not current use value. That means the businesses we boaters rely on are taxed as if they were high-end condominiums or waterfront resorts. You can help change that at the polls on November 4th:

A "Yes" vote on Amendment 6 will bring down the property taxes on the following marine working waterfronts to reflect the property's current use:

Marinas and docks open to the public for water access and recreational uses;
Public vessel launches into navigable inland and coastal waterways;
Commercial fishing facilities;
Water-dependent marine manufacturing facilities;
Marine vessel construction and repair facilities.
BoatUS supports Amendment 6 and we hope you will too on Nov 4. We need your help to get the 60% voter approval required to pass this very important amendment.

For more information: www.saveourwaterfronts.com

Please feel free to share this with your boating and fishing friends.

Margaret Podlich
Vice President of Government Affairs
[email protected]

AppSysCons

A large number of statewide questions in the ballot this year, here in FL.

Constitutional Amendment 1 - Relating to Property Rights/Ineligible Aliens
Proposing an amendment to the State Constitution to delete provisions authorizing the Legislature to regulate or prohibit the ownership, inheritance, disposition, and possession of real property by aliens ineligible for citizenship.

Florida Marriage Protection Amendment 05-10 - Florida Marriage Protection Amendment
This amendment protects marriage as the legal union of only one man and one woman as husband and wife and provides that no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized.

Article VII, Sections 3 and 4; Article XII, New Section - Changes and Improvements Not Affecting the Assessed Value of Residential Real Property
Authorizes the Legislature, by general law, to prohibit consideration of changes or improvements to residential real property which increase resistance to wind damage and installation of renewable energy source devices as factors in assessing the property's value for ad valorem taxation purposes. Effective upon adoption, repeals the existing renewable energy source device exemption no longer in effect.

Article VII, Sections 3 and 4; Article XII, Section 28 - Property Tax Exemption of Perpetually Conserved Land; Classification and Assessment of Land Used for Conservation
Requires Legislature to provide a property tax exemption for real property encumbered by perpetual conservation easements or other perpetual conservation protections, defined by general law. Requires Legislature to provide for classification and assessment of land used for conservation purposes, and not perpetually encumbered, solely on the basis of character or use. Subjects assessment benefit to conditions, limitations, and reasonable definitions established by general law. Applies to property taxes beginning in 2010.

Article VII, Sections 4, 9, and 19; Article XII, Section 28 - Eliminating State Required School Property Tax and Replacing With Equivalent State Revenues to Fund Education
Replacing state required school property taxes with state revenues generating an equivalent hold harmless amount for schools through one or more of the following options: repealing sales tax exemptions not specifically excluded; increasing sales tax rate up to one percentage point; spending reductions; other revenue options created by the legislature. Limiting subject matter of laws granting future exemptions. Limiting annual increases in assessment of non-homestead real property. Lowering property tax millage rate for schools.

Article VII, Section 4; Article XII, New Section - Assessment of Working Waterfront Property Based Upon Current Use
Provides for assessment based upon use of land used predominantly for commercial fishing purposes; land used for vessel launches into waters that are navigable and accessible to the public; marinas and drystacks that are open to the public; and water-dependent marine manufacturing facilities, commercial fishing facilities, and marine vessel construction and repair facilities and their support activities, subject to conditions, limitations, and reasonable definitions specified by general law.

Article I, Section 3 - Religious Freedom
Proposing an amendment to the State Constitution to provide that an individual or entity may not be barred from participating in any public program because of religion and to delete the prohibition against using revenues from the public treasury directly or indirectly in aid of any church, sect, or religious denomination or in aid of any sectarian institution.

Article VII, Section 9 - Local Option Community College Funding
Proposing an amendment to the State Constitution to require that the Legislature authorize counties to levy a local option sales tax to supplement community college funding; requiring voter approval to levy the tax; providing that approved taxes will sunset after 5 years and may be reauthorized by the voters.

Article IX, Sections 1 and 8; Article XII, Section 28 - Requiring 65 Percent of School Funding for Classroom Instruction; State's Duty for Children's Education
Requires at least 65 percent of school funding received by school districts be spent on classroom instruction, rather than administration; allows for differences in administrative expenditures by district. Provides the constitutional requirement for the state to provide a "uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high quality system of free public schools" is a minimum, nonexclusive duty. Reverses legal precedent prohibiting public funding of private school alternatives to public school programs without creating an entitlement.

CigDaze

Absolutely, this is very important. I already submitted my absentee ballot.

This will once again allow boating related interests to compete for waterfront land (as they should).

This absurd notion of "land use" taxation is ridiculous and we need to put an end to it! It's idiotic, really. It's like saying, well, if I wanted to I could have put a huge 3-story mansion on my lot instead of my modest home, so I might as well pay the taxes if it were a huge mansion....

Seriously, who comes up with the sht?!

Thanks for bringing this up!

The Menace

Mailed mine in yesterday. It took me close to 2 hours to research the admendments etc. Wink's web site had the best information. It states the issue as it is on the ballet then simplifies it with straight talk "yes" or "no" answer.

Keep in mind that "equality" in the goverment's definition stops when it comes to their appetite for your money.

gmhdfan

Do you have a link? Looked on the Wink's website but didn't see it. Thanks.

Mark

I'm sure what you say is true. But the major reason I've seen privately owned marinas dissapear is because the Army Core of Engineers will not grant any new marinas. They can, but they will make you wait up to 7 years for an approval IF you get one (a close friend and chief engineer in Cape Coral informed me - I wanted to build a new one in NW Cape Coral for smaller boats). So, as a shortcut, developers buy up the "grandfathered" marinas and develop them. Steven Knight who owns Yacht Clubs of America was telling me about his business plan for adding marinas and the wall street backing he had to do so. Very cool guy actually. I've been trying to buy marinas in Florida for years - their just too expensive for my backing. If I still claimed my main residence in Florida, I'd vote along with you guys. Good luck. Get out there and vote!