Opinion ID: 1620577
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Special Class

Text: Initially, we agree with the dissent below that section 193.016 does not arbitrarily create a class of property for favored tax treatment in the way we found unconstitutional in Interlachen and Valencia. Rather, those cases represent instances of obvious discrimination in the tax treatment of comparable parcels of property. As Judge Benton explained in his dissent: The majority opinion relies on the decisions in Interlachen Lakes Estates, Inc. v. Snyder, 304 So.2d 433 (Fla.1973), and Valencia Center, Inc. v. Bystrom, 543 So.2d 214 (Fla.1989), cases in which our supreme court struck down statutes that dictated preferential assessments for certain owners of real estate. The court described the effect of the statute at issue in Interlachen as giving a subdivision developer a tax break by treating his unsold lots as unplatted for tax valuation purposes until he sells sixty per cent of his lots, while all of the purchasers of his lots are not so favored. 304 So.2d at 435. The statute struck down in Valencia would have required the property appraiser to favor the owners of property subject to certain long-term, below-market leases, by prohibiting assessment on the basis of the highest and best use of the property. In both Interlachen and Valencia, the offending statutes would, under the statutorily prescribed circumstances, have required discriminatory assessment even of adjacent parcels of real estate, on the basis of factors other than the parcels' just value. Interlachen and Valencia are thus readily distinguishable from the present case. Howard, 859 So.2d at 622 (Benton, J., dissenting). We agree with this assessment of our prior case law, and we also agree with Judge Benton's observation that section 193.016's provisions do not run afoul of the constitutional restrictions on the discriminatory classification of property. Rather than providing for a discriminatory classification of property, the provisions of section 193.016 merely require a property appraiser to consider a legal and historical circumstance concerning the valuation of the taxpayer's property. That circumstance is that the property's assessed valuation was recently determined in a binding decision by an entity lawfully charged to do so. Consistent with this policy of requiring attention to this recent determination, the Legislature has further determined that if the appraiser desires to disregard the VAB's findings from the previous year and increase the tax assessment for the tangible personal property in question, the appraiser should provide an explanation for doing so. We do not find that these provisions create an arbitrary or discriminatory classification of property in the way contemplated by article VII, section 4's provisions. Again, we agree with Judge Benton's conclusion: In legal contemplation, moreover, no class consisting of property (real, personal or both) for which the value adjustment board adjusts assessments (without being appealed) receives favored tax treatment. [n.6] [n.6] The majority opinion's assertion that section 193.016 does provide favored treatment ... increase[ing] the likelihood of a favorable assessment is not based on any evidence of record. In enacting section 193.016, the Legislature did not tax different classes of property on different bases. Interlachen, 304 So.2d at 434. It prescribed certain procedures. Considering last year's assessmentwhether adjusted by the value adjustment board or notin the course of arriving at this year's assessmentwhether of tangible personalty or of realtyis a perfectly reasonable way to proceed, and is no more an impediment to attaining just valuation than considering last year's sales is. Id. at 622-23 (footnote 7 omitted). And, of course, we note that these provisions apply to all tangible personal property because the valuation of all such property is subject to review by the VAB if challenged by the taxpayer. Accordingly, we agree with the dissent below and the Department that no improper classification has been created.