[Times | Scott Keeler]

Unions and businesses both lodged serious objections to the Senate’s take-it-or-leave-it property tax plan in a House Democratic caucus on Monday dawn. And that may be sufficient political cover for Democrats to deny the Republican majority the three-fourths vote it needs to put the new version on the Jan. 29 poll. 

Teacher union lobbyist Jeff Wright debunked the Senate’s contention that portability under Save Our Homes will kick-start the economy and construct up for a $2-billion-plus education cut by five years. Said Wright: "I can’t go sell that to my leadership. I’m not going to try." Mike Williams of the building trades union warned that property tax cuts would mean the loss of public-sector jobs.

David Daniel of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, after making a pitch for the need for property

tax relief, told Democrats the Senate’s 10-percent cap on non-homestead assessments was too high and responded with silence when a Democratic lawmaker asked him how members should vote.

On top of all that, House Democrats are howling mad about having too
little data to cast an intelligent vote, and some said their
only info was the Senate plan summary posted here. Complained
Rep. Shelley Vana, D-Lantana: "We don’t have a written version apart from
what we got off the blog."

"We’re working with a bill that we don’t know decent about. I think
that’s going to be a problem," said House Democratic leader Dan Gelber,
D-Miami Beach, who scratched a caucus position and urged each member to
vote his or her conscience. "It’s a very tough vote."

"that is meatball surgery," Gelber said.

Original post by Steve Bousquet