$1 BILLION DEFICIT IN SCHOOLS BUDGET COULD FORCE TAX INCREASE -- One year after Gov. Charlie Crist led the campaign to carve a property tax cut into the state constitution, Florida property owners could face a tax hike as lawmakers stare down a $1 billion hole in the public school budget. "In order to make up that deficit, you would likely increase people's property taxes somewhere along the line of 10 percent," said Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman J.D. Alexander, R-Winter Haven. Alexander said he wasn't suggesting a tax increase for the budget year that begins July 1 but acknowledged that "we're considering everything." Jerry McDaniel, Crist's budget director, told Alexander's committee on Monday that the governor has not signed off on any tax increases for his budget proposal, which is due Feb. 20. "But we have a series of options on the table to discuss with him still," McDaniel said. Crist led the fight for the Amendment 1 property tax cut last year, which was aimed mostly at city and county budgets. It had little impact on property taxes that pay for public schools. Instead, the hole of about $1 billion, or nearly 6 percent of the K-12 budget, is a result of plummeting property values and the Legislature's increasing reliance on property taxes to pay for public schools. As property values soared in Florida this decade, the property tax rate set by state lawmakers collected more and more revenue. Lawmakers, however, lowered the amount of state general revenues that pay for schools. This year, for the first time since the state education funding program was created in 1973, property tax collections account for more of the public schools budget than state revenues. But with property values dropping across the state, appraisals were down an average 8.5 percent in December, according to the state Economic & Demographic Research Office. Alexander said that number is expected to increase. Less taxable value would be another round of bad news for the state budget, which is already facing a $5 billion shortfall in general revenue, made up mostly of taxes on sales and real estate transactions.

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