House Speaker Marco Rubio’s power may be waning outside the Capitol.
But within its halls, the West Miami Republican has set the table for what could be his last best shot at deep property tax reform.
Rubio has moved a potentially pivotal Taxation and Budget Reform Commission meeting set for Monday from another far-flung state building into the House of Representatives main offices.
The panel empowered to place constitutional amendments on the November ballot is scheduled to vote on several radical changes to Florida’s property tax system.
One of which, sponsored by former Jeb Bush aide Patricia Levesque, would eliminate the entire, $7.9 billion portion of property taxes lawmakers force school districts to impose, called the Required Local Effort, by 2010. To offset the tax loss to schools, the Legislature would have to pick and choose between some combination of repealing sales tax exemptions, spending cuts, a sales tax increase, or through general revenue growth once the economy rebounds.
Rubio has been furiously lobbying the 25 members of the commission to line up the 17 votes needed to put the Levesque plan on the ballot. Before the vote, one of the groups backing Rubio, Floridians for Property Tax Reform, plans to rally on the steps of the Capitol.
This week, Rubio appointed his former chief of staff, Richard Corcoran, to the TBRC. The speaker said Friday he was within two votes, and plans to personally appeal to them Monday to pass a version of Levesque's proposal, along with government revenue caps.
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