Property Tax Break vs. High Property Values. You can't have both.

Scenario: You sell real estate, you own real estate you'd like to sell, you're a developer who'd like to sell homes, or you run the local Chamber of Commerce and want to help the local economy, which has been in a deep slump lately.

Question: Should you support Florida Constitutional Amendment 5, which will eliminate the state property tax (which is devoted to public education), or should you oppose it and try to keep the tax?

Answer: If you are short-sighted and look at property values from a very narrow perspective, vote for the constitutional change. This logic holds that people will be more likely to buy homes in Florida if there is no property tax. More buyers, of course, equals a tighter market, which equals higher prices.

If you understand economics in general and property values in particular, vote against Amendment 5 and keep the property tax. Why? Because the #1 influence on the value of a home is the quality of the local public schools.

Better schools = higher property values. That's more money in your pocket, plain and simple.

Amendment 5 claims to "replace" the tax revenue generated by property taxes with revenue from elsewhere - probably a 1% increase on the state sales tax. Experts report that the result would actually be a $9 billion shortfall. This isn't merely changing where the money comes from. It's going to bring in less money, and our schools - and home values - will suffer accordingly.

Why should affluent senior citizens care? Poor schools = low-wage jobs = high crime.

I have gotten active in the all-important drive to bring high-wage jobs to Southwest Florida. I'm senior partner in a new venture fund (http://www.niavg.com/) which is dedicated to exactly that, so my money is literally right where my mouth is. Why? Because higher-wage jobs will transform our economy, thus taking pressure off of the social-service nonprofits Naples Social Action works so hard to help. We'll have fewer "working poor," a term I find obscene - if you work an honest week, you shouldn't be poor come Friday!

The thing is, the first question a high-wage employer asks before opening up shop in an area is, "How well-educated is the workforce?" The first question a potential high-wage/high-skill employee asks before relocating to an area is, "Will my children get the kind of education that a parent like me demands?" If the answer to either of these is No, then guess who ain't moving to Southwest Florida? And guess what that means for our property values?

"Common sense is the rarest of commodities," as a sage once said. So too with understanding of economics. Please, don't get bamboozled by people who themselves aren't very bright. If someone tries selling you on Amendment 5, remember the swampland scams that Florida used to be famous for, and back away - quickly.

Your wealth depends on it.