Crist picks up the phone for property-tax cut


 

If you're an absentee voter, Gov. Charlie Crist could be calling soon.

The "Yes On 1" campaign is flooding the state beginning Tuesday with recorded phone messages featuring Crist's latest almost-personal plea for the $9.1 billion property-tax-relief proposal that will appear on the Jan. 29 ballot.

 

 

"The system is broken, but you have the power to fix the system and lower property taxes for all Floridians, guaranteed by law," Crist says in the announcement.

"The campaign is in full swing," said campaign spokeswoman Vivian Myrtetus.

Myrtetus said "hundreds of thousands" of voters should also be receiving campaign fliers in the next few days.

Myrtetus could not say how much the mailers and the phone calls will cost.

The brightly colored fliers blare "Save Our Homes" and "Take It." The reference is to portability, or allowing homeowners to take their accrued 3 percent annual assessment caps with them when they move.

The proposed amendment also would double the $25,000 homestead exemption for homes worth more than $50,000 and cap annual increases for commercial and non-homestead property at 10 percent.

"This is something the governor's been talking about since he ran for office," said Myrtetus.