A grassroots tax reform movement could receive a significant boost next week when Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio travels to Bradenton to back the plan.

Rubio is scheduled to discuss the Florida Taxpayer Alliance's plan to cap property taxes at 1.35 percent of taxable value Wednesday at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport.

The proposed property-tax amendment on January's ballot doesn't offer enough savings, Rubio said Tuesday. But he said he'll vote for it anyway and work on a plan to improve it.

"This is about getting more money in people's pockets so they can go out and spend it and generate economic activity, and Jan. 29 is not going to do that," Rubio said after addressing Florida TaxWatch, a business-backed budgetary research group meeting in West Palm Beach. In recent weeks, Rubio backed the 1.35 percent plan.

Under the plan, a home or business with a taxable value of $100,000 would have its property taxes capped at $1,350. This year, the same home would have been taxed at about $1,534 in the least-taxed areas of Manatee County.

Rubio's office estimates the plan will mean $8 billion in savings for Florida homeowners, business owners and second homeowners. Save Our Homes exemptions would remain under the plan.

Rubio was not available for comment Wednesday but has said the plan's strengths are its simplicity, its application to all properties, its retention of Save Our Homes and its savings of about $8 billion in property taxes.

The plan is similar to California's Proposition 13, which in 1978 capped property taxes at 1 percent of taxable value.

Taxpayer groups around the state have embraced the plan in part because it would apply both to homesteaders and non-homesteaders, a group that has been left out of tax reform efforts to date. A group in Miami has funded a signature collection service to gather enough signatures - 61,000 by the end of December - for the proposal to get a ruling on its clarity before the Florida Supreme Court.

If the petition passes the court's test, another roughly 550,000 signatures would need to be collected by the end of January for the initiative to appear on a ballot in November.

Locally, the Coalition Against Runaway Taxation has been gathering signatures and recruiting support through its Web site and through e-mail lists. CART President Don Schroder didn't have a running count of signatures but said he is "fairly confident" the taxpayer groups can meet the first signature benchmark.

"Everyone recognizes that taxes are a man-made problem, and the Legislature has not done it's job in finding a comprehensive plan that covers all people that pay taxes: homesteaders, non-homesteaders, commercial, multifamily, renters, condos," Schroder said. "But 1.35 makes it a level playing field."

Taxpayer groups say there are a number of sources to replace the lost revenue, chiefly by eliminating billions of dollars in sales tax exemptions and exclusions. Former state Senate President John McKay of Bradenton, as part of the state's Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, is aiming to strike up to $15 billion in exemptions.

CART also wants Florida to join the growing list of states that want to repeal tax exemptions on Internet sales. But local governments, Schroder said, need to help make up the difference.

"They have to look within themselves for ways where they can cut back," Schroder said.

The St. Petersburg-based Taxpayer Alliance recently produced a video for YouTube.com on the 1.35 proposal. The video outlines the proposal, along with steps people can take to sign the petition and to get involved with the movement.

Nicholas Azzara, county reporter, can be reached at 745-7081.

If you go

Who: Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio will address the public on a proposed 1.35 percent tax cap plan. The public is encouraged to attend.

When: 10:30 a.m. Wednesday

Where: Dolphin Aviation, Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport

The 1.35 percent amendment

Provides that the total property tax on any parcel of real property shall never exceed 1.35 percent of the highest taxable value of the property. This property-tax limit shall apply to all property taxes except property taxes approved by voters. Distribution of revenue from parcels that have reached the 1.35 percent limit shall be determined by general law. Does not amend Save Our Homes, the Homestead Exemption or any other exemption.