The Miami Herald - UNION PROTESTS TAX ADJUSTMENTS

Author: TANIA VALDEMORO
Section: Neighbors
Date: August 12, 2007

Anticipating a large volume of appeals for property tax assessments this week, union leaders are calling for wealthy property owners to instead pay their fair share of property taxes.

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Union leaders demanded that residents of Fisher Island, the nation's wealthiest community, stop using Miami-Dade's Value Adjustment Board to lower their property tax assessments and instead pay the full value of the property taxes they owe.

On Wednesday morning, 40 or so union members rallied in front of the Stephen P. Clark Government Center in downtown Miami.

"They will be coming before the board tomorrow [Thursday] to get their taxes reduced again. When the board reduces those assessments, that means the county doesn't have the money to pay for nursing homes and other services for needy people," said Hiram Ruiz, political director of Service Employees International Union, or SEIU.

In June, SEIU published a study alleging Fisher Island residents used the Miami-Dade Value Adjustment Board to lower their property values by $965 million from 2002 to 2005.

Gary A. Appel, an attorney who represents most of the unit owners on Fisher Island, disputed those figures on Tuesday. He said from 2002 to 2005, the amount of reductions totaled $52 million, not $965 million.

He said three separate reductions -- totaling $15.5 million -- were for the Fisher Island Clubhouse, the old Vanderbilt mansion that cannot be demolished or put to more profitable use because of its historic designation.

"SEIU's attempted link to the VAB process is wrong, dangerous and nothing more than self-propaganda as the system benefits, equally, all economic classes," Appel said.

For months, the union and Fisher Island leaders have been squabbling over SEIU's continued efforts to unionize workers at Fisher Island Club and the Fisher Island Community Association.

"It is obvious from the reference to Fisher Island workers not making enough that SEIU's real issue is with the various employee entities including union recognition and compensation of employees," Appel said.

Three-fourths of property owners on Fisher Island do not have homestead exemptions, he said, so they cannot qualify for Save Our Homes, a state law that caps yearly assessments at 3 percent of a property's value.

Despite having the highest per capita income in the United States, according to the U.S. Census, Fisher Island is one of several communities in Miami-Dade that appeals property tax assessments. Property owners in Sunny Isles Beach and Coral Gables also appear before the board and secure reductions.

Ruiz said that county officials told him Appel would present 280 applications for assessment reductions on Thursday.

Appel said he believed the number is less. Late Wednesday, Appel said he was appealing property tax assessments for 59 to 95 units.

Copyright (c) 2007 The Miami Herald

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