Amendment 1
 

Be careful when you read the details of Amendment 1 on the ballot. The bill appears to be a boost for the development of solar energy. The problem with this bill is that it is a sneaky attempt to insure that the large energy companies have a lock on all future development. You see the Florida legislature cares less about you than the energy lobby that lines their pockets. This bill will effectively KILL competition which in turn allows big energy to charge you whatever the want. Don't vote for this deceptive bill. Tell your legislature why you will not support this bill.

The corporations want solar systems leased, like cars, and governments want to charge the homeowner tax on the value like they do with cars. That's why it's going from a "property tax" to a "personal tax".

There's enough solar energy systems installed now that it's profitable for them to begin looting the industry.

Kind of like the rain tax in Maryland or the flush tax.

In NC they were proposing a meter on well water. You spend five grand to have a well put in and then they want to meter your water usage. It hasn't happened so far.

The problem with Solar panels was that people were selling back the extra electricity to the power companies and they didn't like it. They have been putting pressure on the state gov to remove that requirement for them to buy it back. Solar panels cost so much to install that it helped the customer to pay it back. If you pay $20-30K to install solar, that cost would have paid for many years of electric service through the power company. Without the benefit of selling your extra solar produced power back the power co. it just isn't worth it to install solar.
Now they are talking about taxing solar power? Or the solar panels? Sorry, I haven't read the Amendment yet.

My take, reading the cliff notes version was that now the solar panel system can be added to the value of the house, like adding a room, and it's taxed accordingly, as a real estate improvement. They want to make it "personal property" like your car. You'll get a yearly "solar panel system" tax. This will make "solar" a business like leasing a car.

I'll pass on it. A two hundred buck a month power bill is cheaper.