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Florida Property Tax Woes

By Richard Charles Antolinez

The signers of the Declaration of Independence will never be forgotten.  What they risked wasn’t less than their very lives.  The result is all around us.  It is the greatest nation on God’s green earth.

The Thirteenth Amendment (ratified December 1865) freed the slaves; the Fourteenth (July 1868), made them citizens; and the Fifteenth (February 1870) gave them – the men, at least – the right to vote and to take part in the affairs of government. 

These Legislators will never be forgotten because they righted a wrong and stood up to tyranny.

The Fourteenth Amendment:

Section 1. “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

I charge that the Florida property tax system has violated this Amendment.

I also assert that the current system is blind because there isn’t any means test.

Under the current system, when property values rise, property taxes also follow.  A rise in property value shouldn’t deprive one from his property, but under the current system of taxation there isn’t any link to the ability to pay taxes.  So only the very wealthy can be assured future ownership.

This is not what was intended by any of our Founding Fathers or the Remarkable Legislators that passed this Fourteenth Amendment to our Constitution.  Any system that takes property from the hands of the people based upon their inability to pay tax is destructive.  The people must not be deprived of their rights of ownership.

The Florida Legislature has been indifferent to our plight; citizens are responding at “www.FloridaBallotInitiative.com” print sign and mail the petitions!

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