The legislation passed by the Florida Legislature significantly alters the "highest and best use" method of determining property values in Florida.
Under that method, Gerry's property, with a meager 21 units, could house a towering condominium worth significantly more. Therefore, he was assessed more in taxes.
For that reason, Gerry's property taxes soared from $9,000 in 2000 to more than $60,000 during the current tax year.
Gerry said revamping his property to accommodate a large hotel or condo would take millions of dollars he doesn't have. And newer zoning guidelines wouldn't let him do it anyway. So taxing him as if he owned a large condo doesn't make sense, he said.
"It's just like a lottery ticket," Gerry said. "You should get taxed on the dollar, not the potential jackpot of $10 million."
Legislators agreed.
The revised law would make appraisers take into account such factors as the legally permissible use of the property, as well as any concurrency requirements, zoning changes or permits needed to achieve the highest and best use.
Also, the legislation calls on the Florida Department of Revenue to craft a uniform procedures manual for determining just values of property. It also requires that county property value adjustment boards have two citizen members.
State Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, said there was consensus on the measure among his fellow legislators.
"I think locally it's going to have a great impact," Bennett said. "You had people who have little small restaurants or little hotels on the beach who weren't being taxed on what they were but what they could be. It was just a very, very unfair way to tax and our local people had no control over it."
However, Dale Friedley, who oversees data collection for the Manatee County Property Appraiser's Office, doesn't believe the law will drastically change the way his department assesses properties. He said appraisers already take into account various zoning and concurrency issues in arriving at values.
"We don't really see any change in the business of how we're going to appraise properties based on that change in language," Friedley said. "Just from the reading of the language, it doesn't really change the definition significantly enough. That's our read of it."
Nonetheless, Don Schroder, an Anna Maria Island resident and president and founder of the grassroots group Citizens Against Runaway Taxation, was pleased by the newly crafted legislation.
"In summary, we're very, very happy with what they did," Schroder said. "In reality, we've been fighting for four years to get something like this going. It's probably 75 percent to 80 percent of what we want it to be. Taking into consideration the legal use of the property, that's strong."
State Rep. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, called the legislation a "step in the right direction."
"It's going to require more scrutiny on the highest and best use part of an appraisal," Galvano said. "The whole point is to level the playing field for property owners. I think we'll continue to see this area of law addressed as we monitor the situation, especially in these difficult times."
State Rep. Keith Fitzgerald, D-Sarasota, said the bill was carefully crafted and is a positive step but not a wholesale change.
"People shouldn't be expecting total and absolute change in how highest and best use is used, but it should offer protection to some," Fitzgerald said. "So it's not a drastic change, but it should help some people."
