Thursday, Jan. 31, 08

Democracy in Action

 Florida: Property tax amendment could face legal hurdles

With the sentiment that a little savings is better than none, Florida voters overwhelmingly passed a statewide property tax amendment Tuesday.

Yes votes accounted for 64 percent of the more than 4.1 million ballots cast.

But now the possibility of legal challenges to the portability portion of the package could mean that some homeowners get screwed, and that legislators won’t have the will to go back to the table and create a plan that gives Floridians more relief.

The amendment will give the average homesteaded property owner a $240 reduction in their next tax bill, and assessed value of second homes and rental and commercial properties won’t increase more than 10 percent per year.

Still, Rep. Dan Gelber, the House Democratic leader from Miami Beach, voted against the referendum because, he said, it was ill-conceived and could end up bogged down in court. He explained that the Legislature paid an attorney $50,000 for counsel on the best way to enact portability, and then did the exact opposite of what they were told because of political pressure from the Senate.

“He said ‘you may run into substantial constitutional challenges if you do portability without relief for new homeowners,’” Gelber said.

Portability is a provision of the amendment allowing homesteaded property owners to transfer up to $500,000 in tax savings to a new home. It was billed as a way to loosen the tax shackles that have kept some longtime homeowners from affording to move.

The new plan doesn’t do anything to lower the taxes of new buyers, and already there is pending litigation in Leon County in which three new arrivals to Florida claim that portability is discriminatory and violates their right to equal protection under the law. It’s likely that similar lawsuits will be filed, Gelber said. “The worst scenarios could be that it is declared unconstitutional and people could move and find out they can’t depend on what they thought they could depend on,” he said.

Gov. Charlie Crist, who mounted a $4.4 million campaign in favor of the referendum, is celebrating its passage as a major victory, saying it is only a first step and that he would work for further relief.

Gelber is less optimistic that the Legislature will go back to the table anytime soon.

“Since portability might be unsettled for a long time, it’s hard to do something else,” Gelber said. “I’m not sure my colleagues want to touch this thing again.”

David Carolan, a real estate broker with Carson Realty Group, disagrees that portability isn’t fair. He sees it as all-inclusive, because it locks new homeowners in at a tax rate close to what they buy at, meaning over time, they too will save money. He hopes that Crist keeps his promise and leads the Legislature to pass further reform.

“This is a great first step to creating fairness in the tax code, and to making Florida an attractive, affordable place to live,” said Carolan. “Unpredictable, 100 percent tax increases in a three- or four-year period deter people of all income levels from buying.”

— By Ben Torter

Miami-Dade: Voters back slots

On their second spin of the ballot wheel, pro-gambling groups hit the jackpot with voters who overwhelmingly approved Las Vegas-style slot machines at three of Miami-Dade County’s pari-mutuels: Calder Race Course, Miami Jai-Alai and Flagler Dog Track.

Sixty-three percent of the 384,146 voters voted yes for slots, a turnaround from when 52 percent of voters said no to the measure in 2005.

Slot machine proponents — led by the political action committee Vote Yes for a Greater Miami-Dade — launched a major media blitz and were visible at the polls. Their message: Slot machines will bring $210 million to the state’s public education system, $689 million in “additional business revenues,” 6,000 new jobs and $26 million for Miami-Dade County and the cities of Miami and Miami Gardens in just the first year.

Each of the pari-mutuels will be allowed to install up to 2,000 machines.

“I think it’s a mandate from the people,” said Daniel Licciardi, general manager for Miami Jai-Alai. “I think people are going to be very, very happy with what they voted for.”

Miami Jai-Alai will undergo a $150 million renovation and should be up and running with slots within 18 months, Licciardi said.

Doug Hurd, chairman of No Casinos Miami, said opponents put up a good fight, but just didn’t have the resources to get out their message that slots will increase crime and gambling addiction.

Similar to cocaine, Hurd said when it comes to slots, “supply does make a difference. Having the available supply increases addiction to gambling. That is pretty much what we have to look forward to.”

And the supply of gambling outlets is increasing, as Miami-Dade joins Broward County and the Seminole Tribe as suppliers of Las Vegas-style slots. Broward’s pari-mutuel facilities have had slots since voters there passed a referendum in 2005.

“It’s a slippery slope,” Hurd said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they keep asking for more and more.”

Two other referendums were passed by Miami-Dade voters. County Question One, which asked voters for permission to move the qualifying period for county positions by three weeks, passed with 264,313 voters (75.6 percent) voting yes and 85,634 (24.5 percent) voting no. County Question Two, making the property appraiser an elected position, passed with 278,084 voters (76.8 percent) voting yes and 84,085 (23.2 percent) voting no.

— By Ben Torter

Miami: Voters OK Citizens’ Bill of Rights

A charter amendment mandating the creation of a “citizens’ bill of rights” was overwhelmingly approved by Miami’s voters, Tuesday.

The charter amendment mandates that commissioners create of a Bill of Rights in Miami’s charter that will “guarantee rights related to religion and conscience, speech, assembly and press, unreasonable searches and seizures, nondiscrimination, environmental protection, natural resources and scenic beauty and providing for remedies and construction.”

“It’s an exciting day because today citizens of Miami have more rights than they did yesterday and more rights than they did under the Constitution,” Commissioner Marc Sarnoff said.

Proposed by Sarnoff, the Bill of Rights enables the Miami City Commission to pass ordinances forbidding discrimination against gays, lesbians and transgender individuals, among others, Sarnoff said.

“Every conceivable person will now be treated equally and fairly,” he said.

And since the charter amendment also includes “nondiscrimination, environmental protection, natural resources and scenic beauty,” the Bill of Rights also mandates the creation of more parks.

Voting “yes” for the charter amendment were 36,585 voters, or 79.7 percent. Voting “no” were 9,295 voters, or 20.3 percent.

— By Erik Bojnansky

Miami Beach: Hospital District charter amendment passes 

What happens to a hospital district when there isn’t a hospital anymore? Miami Beach voters answered that question when they approved a charter amendment mandating that three of the four districts will revert to the density of the land abutting them.

Final results revealed that 8,902 Miami Beach residents, or 68.6 percent, favored the hospital district amendment; 4,072 people, or 31.4 percent, voted against it.

Mount Sinai Medical Center at 4300 Alton Road is exempt from the amendment because its campus exceeds 15 acres. But that didn’t stop philanthropists and administrators affiliated with the hospital from opposing the measure when Commissioner Matti Bower, who was elected mayor in November, proposed it last year. They feared the amendment would affect their proposed sale of the Miami Heart Institute at 4701 N. Meridian Ave., which is located in a residential single-family neighborhood. The future of Miami Heart Institute was a major issue in last year’s election. Neighbors feared a high-rise developer might purchase the campus, but Mount Sinai board members argued that any talk of zoning was premature.

Besides Miami Heart, the amendment will affect the now-closed South Shore Hospital at 630 Alton Road and Oceanside Extended Care Center at 550 Ninth St.

“I think it’s fantastic,” Bower said. “It’s what the people wanted.”

Before Tuesday’s election the City Commission amended Miami Beach’s hospital district code, expanding the list of allowable uses to include nursing homes, assisted living facilities, medical and nursing schools, research facilities and community health service centers.

— By Erik Bojnansky

Coral Gables: Voters reject call to dissolve trial board

Coral Gables officials say the city’s trial board is no longer needed in these days of union arbitrations. The last time the trial board met was in 1989.

Yet most voters in the City Beautiful aren’t ready to give up the trial board. On Tuesday, 6,502 Coral Gables residents, or 53.4 percent, voted against eliminating the trial board; 5,669 residents, or 46.6 percent, voted to dissolve it.

The trial board — used by municipal employees to appeal the city manager’s decision to fire, suspend or demote them — has existed since the city was incorporated in 1925. Before the Jan. 29 primary, City Manager David Brown said the board had been rendered moot because of national and state arbitration laws and negotiations with the city’s employee unions.

However, Margaret Pass, the city’s former building and zoning director, recently appealed her October termination to the trial board. Pass was suspended in September 2006 after her assistant, Jorge Reyes, was arrested for hiring “ghost employees,” who never actually worked for the city, through a temporary agency. Those employees, in turn, paid a cut of their salary to Reyes, police say. His arrest sparked a wider investigation into the Building and Zoning Department.

Brown said Pass would receive a trial board hearing whether or not the charter amendment passed, but only after the City Commission and city unions reassemble the board.

— By Erik Bojnansky

North Bay Village: Voters OK bonds, referendum

North Bay Village citizens approved three bonds and a referendum Tuesday.

Totaling $19.3 million, the 30-year general obligation bonds will pay for capital improvements throughout the city, even though tax-leery voters rejected similar bond referendums just one year ago. However, city leaders now promised that future residential projects will pay for the bulk of the debt, allowing officials to reduce property tax rates.

Proposition 1, which secures a $9.4 million bond to build city parks and recreational facilities, received 506 yes votes, or almost 63 percent. City officials said they will hold community meetings to hash out what will be built. Three hundred of the 806 votes cast opposed the bond.

Proposition 2 authorizes the city to issue $7.9 million in bonds to construct a new City Hall building and police complex in conjunction with county efforts for the fire department’s portion of the building. Of the 800 votes cast for that item, 495 voted yes and 305 voted no.

Proposition 3 allows residents to determine how that new complex would be oriented and authorizes the city to swap one city-owned lot for another. The land-swap referendum passed with 533 voting for it and 261 voting against. 

Proposition 4, which garnered the least support, allows the city to issue a $2 million bond for landscaping and aesthetic improvements to the John F. Kennedy Causeway, considered a “gateway” to the city. The item still passed with 479, or 59 percent, voting for the bond, and 330, or almost 41 percent, voting against.

“I am very gratified by the overwhelming support the citizens of North Bay Village gave to our bond referendums,” Mayor Joe Geller said Wednesday morning. “This is a real victory for all of North Bay Village. This will allow us to move our city forward and improve the quality of life for everyone who lives in North Bay Village.”

— Angie Hargot

Hollywood: Incumbent mayor unseated

Hollywood’s mayor of 20 years was unseated Tuesday in a political contest that also saw the election of three new commissioners.

District 6 Commissioner Peter Bober claimed 11,741 votes, defeating longtime Mayor Mara Giulianti by about 3,000 votes.

“I think this whole notion of change slipped up both [Commissioner] Cathy Anderson and I,” Giulianti said Wednesday. “People keep telling me in 20 years I’ve accomplished more than Hollywood had seen in the decades and decades before. When I lost back in 1990, the city slid back five years [in terms of progress]. That’s why I ran again.”

But Giulianti’s latest run for office was marred by allegations that she was too close to certain lobbyists and by the criminal conviction of Commissioner Keith Wasserstrom for his role in steering a sludge-processing contract to Schwing Bioset.

Retired nurse Linda Sherwood, who won with 2,008 votes to challenger Ed Holodak’s 1,834 votes, will fill Bober’s seat. Sherwood was backed by developers and the city’s three employees’ unions whose contracts are up for negotiations this year.

Anderson, a city commissioner for 32 years, finished in third place in the District 1 race. The commission seat was won by Patty Asseff, a real estate agent, with 2,277 votes. Activist Sara Case claimed 2,083 votes; Anderson only received 1,684 votes.

However, incumbent District 2 Commissioner Beam Furr solidly defeated businessman Peter Hernandez with more than twice the votes: 1,999 to Hernandez’s 985.

The District 3 commission seat will be filled by political newcomer Heidi O’Sheehan, who won with 1,699 votes. Second-place finisher Leonard Pete Brewer, who received 1,384 votes, almost tied with candidate Josh Levy, who claimed 1,358 votes.

Sixty-one percent of Hollywood voters (16,584 in all) approved a referendum allowing the city to sell four publicly owned lots in hopes of attracting developers and, ultimately, commerce and jobs.

The election had been the subject of much scrutiny after 20 early voters were given the wrong precinct tickets by poll workers, causing them to vote in elections for neighboring cities.

Giulianti, though, doesn’t see any legal challenges on the horizon. “It was never enough [votes] to make a difference,” she said. “I think all of us accept the will of the voters.”

With that, Giulianti wished the city luck in the face of the new property tax amendment that she feels will produce “rough times” for the city financially, adding concern about her successor.

“Peter Bober will be very part-time because he has a full-time law practice,” said Giulianti.

— By Angie Hargot