Pinellas Times

Pinellas County Property Appraiser Mike Twitty is the mastermind behind legislation that could provide an extra year to transfer tax savings under the umbrella of the state's Save Our Homes assessment cap.

The proposed legislation, House Bill 369 and Senate Bill 148,  is sponsored by state Sen. Jeff Brandes (R-St. Petersburg) and Rep. Rick Roth (R-West Palm Beach). It would create a constitutional referendum at the ballot box in November on whether or not to add a year to the period when homeowners can transfer their accumulated benefits with regard to the Save Our Homes property tax assessment cap to a new house. If the referendum passed, Florida would have to amend its constitution.

“This would eliminate a bunch of heartache and some of the gamesmanship that ends up occurring with people trying to figure out how to get under the wire when they’ve legitimately missed (the deadline to transfer the tax savings),” Twitty recently told the Tampa Bay Times. “Most of the time when they do miss it, it’s not by more than six months or so.”

In 1992, voters approved the Save Our Homes amendment to the state's constitution. The amendment is an assessment limitation, or “cap," on increases in the assessed value of a homestead residence and is designed to prevent owners from being taxed out of their homes when the market is escalating.