4 Tax Relief Ideas Discussed

On Monday, legislative economists and lawyers walked lawmakers through three methods of raising the homestead exemption, and a House leader quickly diagrammed and presented a fourth strategy. They are:

•A flat percentage of a home's value. Lawmakers could set a level of 50 percent, for example, which would leave a home valued at $100,000 to be taxed as if it were worth $50,000, while a home valued at $500,000 would be taxed at $250,000.

•A tiered percentage, with the total exemption based on specified increments of home value. This strategy would give big relief to owners of lower- to average-price homes, while cutting the high-end benefit.

•A county-specific value could be assigned as the homestead exemption - for example, one-half of the county's median home value. This strategy reflects local conditions, and differences such as the characteristics of a $250,000 home on Broward County versus Calhoun County, for example.

•At Monday's meeting, House Democratic leader Dan Gelber of Miami Beach quickly devised a scenario by which county-specific values could also be tiered. He suggested a benefit of perhaps 50 percent of a county's median value; 25 percent on the increment that represents twice the county's median value; and 10 percent on the next increment to three times a county's median value.

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