Amesty’s school should pay taxes on $1.6 million home, magistrate rules

Rep. Carolina Amesty’s family-run university should not be exempt from paying property taxes on the $1.6 million house it owns near Windermere because it is used as a private residence and is not “an integral part of the educational institution,” according to a special magistrate ruling released Tuesday.

Central Christian University, where the Republican lawmaker serves as vice president, argued it should not pay 2023 property taxes on the five-bedroom pool home, because its president, Amesty’s father, resides there and uses it for some university business.

The house sits in an upscale golf community that isn’t accessible to visitors unless they show a pass to a guard at its entrance. It’s about 15 miles from Central Christian’s campus on North Hiawassee Road.

Without an exemption, the university owes about $25,000 in property taxes this year on the 5,400-square-foot home in Keene’s Pointe on the Butler Chain of Lakes, according to the property appraiser’s website.

The unaccredited university, which this summer told the state it had about 160 mostly online students, said the house serves the same function as the presidents’ houses at Rollins College and the University of Miami, which are exempt from property taxes.

But the Orange County Property Appraiser disagreed, saying evidence showed that Central Christian’s home was a private residence for Juan Amesty, the school’s president and founder. Florida law requires properties to be used for educational purposes to qualify for the tax exemption Central Christian wanted.

A special magistrate who heard the university’s appeal on Nov. 7 ruled in favor of the property appraiser, recommending that the office’s decision to deny the tax exemption be upheld.

Asima Azam, an Orlando attorney who served as the magistrate, wrote that the testimony provided by university officials “did not support that the Property is regularly or frequently made available to students or faculty for classes, meetings or workshops, or that students or faculty regularly visited or made use of the Property.”

Azam’s recommendation now goes to the county’s Value Adjustment Board, which will make a final decision on tax appeals at its April 15 meeting.

Neither Amesty nor her father could be reached immediately for comment.

Amesty, whose district includes a section of west Orange and northern Osceola County, spoke at the hearing in early November and urged Azam to side with the university.

The home was used for “fundraisers, events, meetings, a lot of meetings that can’t happen on campus,” with board members, faculty and foreign dignitaries, she said.

“The dispute of whether the home is used for educational purposes is inaccurate,” Amesty added.

But Ana Torres, general counsel for the property appraiser’s office, told Azam the university didn’t indicate the property was used for purposes other than housing its president on its initial application for a tax exemption or at any other time prior to the hearing.

“The burden of proof is not on our office,” she added.

In her written opinion, Azam said the university needed to show that the house was used “frequently and regularly” by students and faculty and “is an integral part of the educational institution.”

Central Christian did not show that, she wrote. “Instead, the testimony and evidence provided that the Property is primarily used as the personal residence of the CCU President.”

Amesty, newly elected to the Florida Legislature in 2022, lived in the house with her parents during her campaign and her first session in office and used that address when she filed her 2024 re-election documents with the state in January.

That living arrangement prompted controversy during her campaign and the home’s unpaid 2022 tax bill was a part of an Orlando Sentinel investigation of Amesty published in August.

In May, Amesty moved to another address in the same community, voter registration records show.

The university recently paid its delinquent 2022 property bill. The past-due amount of more than $18,200 has been cleared, the property appraiser’s website showed Tuesday.