SUMMARY:

            This Resolution for a proposed Constitutional amendment would provide “complete and permanent exemption from ad valorem taxes and fees” if the taxpayer pays 20 times the tax and fees due during the current year.

REQUIREMENTS:

• The proposal would apply to real property and any improvements as of the date of the exemption.
• Further improvements would be taxable, unless the taxpayer pays 20 times the taxes and fees due on the improvements.
• If the property were sold, the ad valorem tax exemption would still apply, even if the property went through multiple sales.

NOTES:

• In theory, all ad valorem taxpayers could pay 20 times their current tax bill for 2009 and then no taxes would ever be paid on that property again.  One must wonder if state and local governments would be prudent enough to manage the overwhelming windfall for eternity, since they would have no further revenue from real property, ever.
• More realistically, could this measure, if approved, reduce county, city and school system revenue over time to the point of hampering operations?
• Only the wealthy could afford to pay 20 times a current tax bill, so some of the most valuable property in the counties would be pulled from the tax rolls, and the burden of inflated costs for operation of government and schools over time would be left to the middle and lower economic classes of taxpayers, the ones least able to pay.