2. Residential properties, particularly multi-family residential properties, are getting hammered by an increasingly aggressive FDEP, which is looking to these properties as another source of revenue. The latest attempt at a fee increase in SB 1012 would have increased land lease fees from $0.14 per square foot up to as much as $0.60 per square foot. One condo association in Tierra Verde would have seen its annual lease fee go from $16,000 to $72,000 annually and this is of course, over and above the property taxes on the same docking facilities.

1. FDEP is attempting to charge a 6% tax on monthly condo maintenance fees, calling those maintenance fees “revenue generated”.
2. FDEP is attempting to charge a 6% tax on the value of a boat slip that changes hands, calling the sale price “revenue generated". FDEP views the sale of one’s residence as “income” and worse, FDEP unilaterally can determine the value of the slip, ignoring the market value placed on it.
3. FDEP was attempting to charge up to $0.60 per square foot per year for submerged land leases, more than FOUR TIMES the current lease fee for some condo owners.
4. These charges are far beyond the cost of administering the submerged land lease program, an administrative limitation that currently exists but that has been ignored by FDEP.

3. Single family residences fronting on state submerged lands are mostly exempt from many of these fees and taxes via the 10:1 exclusion: For every foot of shoreline owned the property owner gets 10 square feet of exempted submerged land for docking facilities. If a person owns 100 feet of shoreline he gets 1,000 square feet of exempted submerged land (which equates to about 2 slips per residence). Because of the density issue, condominiums are disqualified from any exemptions and are burdened with all the fees. This is unfair and discriminatory.

4. Waterfront condominium owners already pay high property taxes on their docks. Then the state wants more fees, surcharges and yes, even state sales taxes on top of these fees for the same docks. This is double-taxation at its most insidious.

5. Multi-family residential foreclosures have placed undue financial pressure on surviving owners who now have to take up the slack of uncollectible maintenance fees. Some condominiums will be forced to abandon and remove their docks all together. Condominium values would decrease and units would be harder to sell, creating a disastrous domino effect statewide.