TAMPA - State lawmakers brought a town-hall tour on property taxes to Tampa on Thursday night - and more than 200 people answered the call for suggested fixes to the crisis.

Or in many cases, people just wanted legislators to know how personal the crisis has become.

Judy Blanton, 64, of Clearwater, said that widows like her can't afford to downsize. Their homes' assessed value has long been limited to a maximum 3 percent increase per year under the Save Our Homes cap. But they lose it if they move, because homes are assessed at market value when they're sold.

"A two-bedroom house would better suit me, but none of us can afford to make the move because we're going to be paying two or three times the taxes for a smaller home than what we have now," said Blanton, a retired teacher.

"This is not only penalizing us, but it's penalizing people with children who would like to come in and buy our homes … We're all stuck in a rut and we have no place to go - and we're looking for you to help us out."

Maggie Jackson, who is recently divorced, said she had to sell her home and buy another to keep her daughter in the same school district. Her tax bill nearly doubled.

"It's just not fair. I lost my cap," said Jackson of Hillsborough County, who denounced one tax-cutting effort proposed by Gov. Charlie Crist - to double the $25,000 homestead exemption. "They don't need that. It's the people that purchased in the last two years that need help."

Several people decried the Save Our Homes cap that went into effect more than a decade ago. It created disparities between longtime homeowners' and new homeowners' tax bills. Owners of businesses, rental properties or second homes can't qualify for the cap. Crist wants to expand the cap to all types of properties.

The biggest crowd reaction came when speakers complained about local governments whose budgets grew immensely when home values soared - and local officials didn't follow up with tax rate cuts.

"They have become incredibly greedy," said Linda Hayward of Brooksville, who held a stack of petitions with 11,619 signatures that asked Hernando County commissioners for a significant drop in the property tax rate. They cut the rate, but not nearly as much as the petitioners wanted.

Hayward, who made the same pitch in Orlando to the now-defunct Property Tax Reform Committee last year, got a rousing reaction of cheers, applause and whistles when she said this:

"We need caps on revenues to local government."

Such caps are a pet project of Sen. Mike Haridopolos, R-Melbourne, Finance & Tax Committee chairman, who has led the group of lawmakers on the statewide property tax town-hall tour. The Tampa meeting, which was extended from its scheduled three hours to four, was held at Hillsborough Community College's Dale Mabry campus.

Rick Fifer, 45, of Seminole Heights, won more cheers from the crowd when he complained that Tampa was among the overspenders.

"The city of Tampa can waste $18 million on a new museum when the one we have is perfectly fine," said Fifer, who said that properties should be reassessed every decade instead of once a year. "We're wasting too much money."

Reporter Karen Branch-Brioso can be reached at (813) 259-7815 or at kbranch-brioso@tampatrib .com.