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Here's a complaint you may have heard:

"They come here to take advantage of what we have. They don't want to pay taxes, they make all sorts of demands on our community systems, they complain about us yet they refuse to become citizens. Why don't they just go back to where they came from?"

Illegal immigrants?

Nope. Snowbirds.

The debate raging locally over the cap on tax assessments for housing and the homestead tax break boils down, it seems to me, to the fact that some snowbirds want the tax breaks that residents get, but don't want to become actual residents.

They want the advantages of living in Florida but they refuse to become citizens of Florida.

Looks as if they want to have their pie and eat it, too.

Here's the deal: You come to Florida, you love it here, so you buy a house or condo. If you make your primary residence here, you are entitled to the homestead exemption on your property tax: $25,000 is deducted from your home's assessed value each year.

Moreover, thanks to the 1992 Save Our Homes amendment to Florida's constitution, increases in your property's assessed value are limited to 3 percent per year, or the growth in the Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower.

To get these benefits, you must become a citizen here in Florida, which means, basically that you must live here at least six months and a day each year and register to vote here.

Doesn't sound too onerous, does it?

But there are people who want to get that homestead exemption without becoming Florida citizens. For some unfathomable reason, they want to maintain their citizenship back in the gray and snowy states that they hail from. And there are politicians, of course, who are perfectly happy to push for such a change in our laws.

What's worse, they also want to mess with the 3 percent cap on assessment increases.

The politicians dress their intent in honeyed words and sugar-coated bribes, just as a fisherman puts his shiniest and most attractive lure on the end of his line when he's out to catch a big fish.

The offer that the politicians are making is to double the homestead exemption to $50,000 over 10 years, but — and here's the hook — to limit the Save Our Homes benefits to $100,000 after January 1, 2007.

The proposal before the legislature would allow homeowners to take up to $100,000 of the Save Our Homes benefit with them when they move to another residence in the same county. This is called "portability."

In other words, a resident's homestead exemption will creep up a little each year, but the assessment on that same resident's home will skyrocket — along with his or her tax bill. And the same situation will apply no matter where you move.

Why? Because the politicians want to squeeze more tax dollars out of us. They want to shift the burden of taxation away from non-resident snowbirds and commercial properties and businesses (such as developers) and dump it onto the home-owning citizens.

"Save Our Homes has removed all fairness from property taxation," wails Fred Brummer, R-Apopka, chairman of the legislature's Finance and Tax Committee.

Fairness? Let's back up a moment and take a good look at fairness.

The Save Our Homes amendment was passed because most of the voters in this state wanted it. As the value of housing in Florida climbed during the past few decades, many families of fixed or limited incomes were being taxed out of their homes.

Every year, the tax assessment would jump, until the tax bill became bigger than those families could afford to pay. They were forced to sell their homes and look for shelter elsewhere.

That is fair?

If the Save Our Homes cap is removed, or so watered down that it looses its usefulness, then once again taxpaying citizens will literally be taxed out of their own homes.

The politicians claim that homeowners feel trapped under the current rules because if they move they would lose the Save Our Homes benefits they enjoyed in their original residence.

What's really going on here? Real estate prices have zoomed skyward in recent years. In the condominium in which I live, units with two bedrooms and two baths that were bought for less than $250,000 a few years ago are now going for close to $1,000,000. The market may be slowing down some, but it will probably plateau at or near its current level for a while, then start to rise again.

Residents want to cash in and take advantage of the higher real estate prices. Snowbirds want the same tax breaks that residents get; they feel they have to pay more taxes than they should. Commercial interests want to pay less in taxes, as well. Who doesn't?

And behind these conflicting goals is the fact that governments constantly spend more and more money each year. Government bureaucracies live on tax dollars, and their appetite is insatiable. The more tax dollars they receive, the more they want. Where is the politician who's willing to lead a movement to reduce government spending?

The Save Our Homes amendment was one small part of a national movement against constantly growing tax bills. Florida is not the only state to enact tax-limiting measures. California, Texas and other states are also moving in that direction.

Fairness? Reducing the taxpayers' burden is what's fair. Any politician who wants to increase your tax burden is a politician who ought to be bounced out of office and made to find honest work.

Naples taxpayer Ben Bova is the author of more than 110 books. His latest novel is "Titan." Bova's Web site address is www.benbova.net.