Pasco votes to avert the tax hit expected from the Live Local law
Pasco County commissioners on Tuesday voted unanimously to opt out of a portion of a state program to provide more affordable housing because they say it would cost Pasco tens of millions in lost tax revenue and do little to provide more low-cost apartments for those in need.
The provision of the Live Local law passed last year would allow eligible apartments to get property tax breaks if they were providing affordable housing. Pasco officials said the definition of affordable in Live Local was written so broadly that it would apply to apartment complexes advertising luxury features with rents that were hardly a bargain.
Pasco mobilized a lobbying effort during the last legislative session, seeking a change in the law. That change, which allows counties to opt out of giving the tax exemption if a state analysis shows there is no demand for apartments at the rates covered, was passed by state lawmakers and signed earlier this month by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
It was not clear whether the vote would stop operators of two apartments that did seek tax relief under Live Local. The county had sent a letter to the apartment operators demanding that they not follow through with their applications. The complexes never replied to the county and filed their exemption requests with the Property Appraiser’s Office, according to county spokesperson Sarah Andeara.
Chief Assistant County Attorney David Goldstein said that Property Appraiser Mike Wells had not yet determined whether to grant those exemptions for this year because this year is not covered under the law change. Goldstein has, however, sent him a lengthy legal analysis arguing that no exemption should be granted because the apartment complexes are not doing anything of a charitable nature, which is required for a tax exemption.
If granted for just the one year, the two complexes would get a combined property tax break of $1,275,000, county officials said.
After hearing that Wells has not yet made a decision, commissioners voted unanimously to write a letter to the property appraiser encouraging him to not approve the exemption for the same legal reasons Goldstein has identified.
Goldstein said he has also reached out to the Pasco School District, Pasco cities and the Mosquito Control District, all of which would have to take their own action to opt out of the tax exemption for apartments. Exemptions will have to be done annually for each taxing body for the 35-year life of the Live Local law.
Despite avoiding a hit that could have amounted to tens of millions of dollars in lost tax revenue to pay for county services, Goldstein urged commissioners not to stop there.
Even if the county continues to qualify for opting out, there are other issues to consider, Goldstein wrote.
As initially written, Live Local grants full property tax breaks for apartment owners who charge low rents. But it also provides substantial breaks to owners of apartment complexes that charge rents considered affordable to families making 80% to 120% of the median income in an attempt to help residents who have jobs but still struggle financially.
Under the change enacted this year, counties can opt out of that category of rental housing tax break if they can show there is no shortage of inventory in that price range as determined by an analysis by the Shimberg Center for Housing Studies.
Goldstein said that the only counties in the state that had housing deficits in that range were Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe. He reasoned that in future legislative sessions, the state should confine Live Local tax breaks to that area.
He also said that the Shimberg study has flaws that might come back to haunt the county. For one thing, Pasco is grouped with Hillsborough and Pinellas counties in determining housing availability based on income, which might skew numbers in to show a deficit in the future for the higher-rent apartments, he said.
Goldstein said Pasco should also continue to fight to keep its job-creating sites, those zoned for commercial or industrial use, and not have them turned into affordable housing without the required land use changes. That was the Live Local provision that first caught Pasco’s attention, that no land-use change was required.
For Pasco officials, it was an affront to years of effort to shake the county’s reputation as a bedroom community. The county has focused on designating of more land for job-creating commercial and industrial sites and Live Local put those at risk.
