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Sotomayor family tax breaks in Broward face questions
Political bloggers are demanding an investigation of property tax exemptions
that U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s family receives on a condo in
Margate. But local officials say there is no problem.
At issue is whether Sotomayor’s mother and step-father are entitled to a
homestead exemption after deeding their home to her eight years ago. Property
Appraiser Lori Parrish is maintaining that state property tax law allows
residents to create life estates and keep their tax breaks for the rest of their
life.
Parrish and the web site, webofdeception.com, have traded e-mails over the
propriety of the tax breaks and access to the family’s tax records for two
weeks. The site’s operator, private investigator Joseph Culligan, is now
threatening to ask a judge to demand a review, and his reports have been picked
up on a couple of other blogs.
“What the family has is similar to a trust,” Parrish said Wednesday.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted this week to approve President Obama’s
selection of Sotomayor, a federal appeals court judge who would become the first
Hispanic member of the high court. Sotomayor’s mother, Celina Sotomayor, and her
step-father, Omar Lopez, attended the Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings.
Celina Sotomayor, 82, and Lopez, 75, bought a condo in the Palm Springs III
senior community in 1994. In 2001, the pair deeded the home to Sonia Sotomayor
as part of a life estate.
Parrish and her attorney, Ron Gunzburger, said such a life estate deed means
the couple can use the property for the rest of their life. They said Sonia
Sotomayor cannot claim her rights to the property until the couple’s death.
The condo has a taxable value of $48,880. After homestead tax breaks, the
pair’s tax bill last year totaled $107. They have both for the homestead
exemption available on the primary home of Florida residents and the senior
exemption that’s available to lower-income seniors.
Debra Boje, a law partner in Ruden McClosky’s estate planning division, and
Jennifer Drake, a lawyer who heads up the real estate division at the Becker
& Poliakoff law firm, said the Sotomayor family used an extremely common
estate planning technique in Florida. Such a life estate guarantees seniors keep
their tax breaks while also simplifying the inheritance process, they said.
“Really and truly, Judge Sotomayor is entitled to the property only upon the
death of the life estate owners,” Drake said.