State Rep. Carolina Amesty argued Tuesday that the $1.6 million house owned by her family’s private university should be exempt from Orange County property taxes because it serves as space for school gatherings, and not only as a residence for her father, the school’s president.
Amesty, a Republican who represents west Orange County and northern Osceola County, missed the Florida House’s special session Tuesday in Tallahassee to attend a tax hearing in Orlando. She was joined by more than a dozen supporters of Central Christian University who want a special magistrate to rule that the house in an upscale community near Windermere should be excused from paying its taxes this year.
Without that ruling, the university with a campus on North Hiawassee Road would face a 2023 tax bill of more than $25,000 on the five-bedroom pool home, according to the Orange County Property Appraiser. The university also has not paid its 2022 taxes on the house, the property appraiser’s website shows, and last year’s delinquent bill now stands at more than $18,200.
“We’re just asking the property appraiser’s office to be just and to follow clear guidance on the statute,” said Amesty, Central Christian’s vice president and a member of the university’s board of directors.
The property appraiser’s office in late June denied Central Christian’s exemption request and Tuesday urged the magistrate to rule in its favor. An attorney for that office said the unaccredited university did not qualify for a tax exemption on the home because it was being used solely as a residence for its president.
Central Christian appealed a decision denying the exemption, prompting Tuesday’s hearing before a special magistrate, Asima Azam, an Orlando attorney.
Azam listened to about an hour of testimony and then said she would issue her ruling within 20 days. Her recommendation then goes to the county’s Value Adjustment Board.
Central Christian purchased the house in Keene’s Pointe, a luxury community on the Butler Chain of Lakes featuring a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course, in March 2022. Amesty and her parents had been living there for more than a year by the time of the purchase, leasing it first, she said last year.
Carolina Amesty lived in the house during her successful 2022 campaign for the House and during her first legislative session earlier this year, voter registration records show. That living arrangement prompted controversy during her campaign and the unpaid tax bill was a part of an Orlando Sentinel investigation of Amesty published in August.
Amesty has declined to say why the university’s 2022 tax bill remains unpaid. Asked after the hearing why she was not in Tallahassee, Amesty declined to answer but said the Orlando Sentinel was always criticizing her.
Rep. Amesty leaves trail of falsehoods, unpaid taxes and bills, records show
The property appraiser’s office initially denied Central Christian’s request for an exemption because it said the house was not used exclusively for educational purposes as required by Florida law.
Ana Torres, general counsel for the property appraiser’s office, also said Tuesday the university does not meet the law’s definition of “educational institution” as required for a tax exemption.
She noted that the university must prove its eligibility for the exemption and that the use of the property as a residence for Central Christian’s president did not automatically relieve it of its tax burden.
“There has been no evidence of anything,” Torres said, “of any meetings conducted there from any group of the university, anything of that nature, and that is something that we do require to justify and substantiate an actual educational use of the property.”
Torres also noted that granting exemptions to some properties involves a “direct shift in tax burden” to other properties, so the rules of exemption should be interpreted “strictly.”
Jinnette Ruiz, an attorney for Central Christian, however, said Central Christian is licensed by the Florida Department of Education and that is sufficient to meet the standard of the tax exemption law.
In July, the university told the state it had 12 students in its state-licensed programs and about 150 in its religious programs that are not licensed.
Ruiz also argued that Florida courts have ruled that the phrase “exclusively for educational purposes” should be broadly interpreted and that a property “does not need to be used one hundred percent of the time for educational purposes” to be granted a property tax exemption.
Ruiz noted that Rollins College, whose Winter Park campus is in Orange County, has an exemption on its president’s on-campus house, and that the University of Miami in Miami-Dade County has one on its president’s house, which is several miles from its Coral Gables campus.
Amesty’s father, Juan, is the university’s president and founder. Juan Amesty, a Venezuelan immigrant, testified in Spanish that the house is used for university meetings, including gatherings with administrators from other universities.
Colleges often provide homes for their presidents, but they are typically on campus or close by, allowing the top executive to be part of college life and to host fundraising and other events for the college community, said Lloyd Mayer, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame whose expertise includes non-profit organizations and the intersection of election and tax laws.
Rollins’ Barker House, built on campus in 2004, for example, provides private living quarters on its second floor and space designed for public events on its first floor, according to the college.
But Mayer said that Central Christian’s president’s home is in a gated community – one that guests can access only by showing a pass to a guard – makes it harder to argue it is part of the university. The home is about 15 miles, and a 30-minute drive, away from Central Christian’s campus.
The Legislature went into a special session Monday. On Tuesday, the House voted to provide $25 million to boost security for Jewish day schools, increase aid for Hurricane Idalia victims and allow nearly 9,000 students with disabilities on a waiting list to get a state scholarship through Florida’s school voucher programs.
