State: Ted Turner, Florida resident

With his personal secretary in tow Monday, media mogul Ted Turner walked into the Jefferson County Tax Collector's Office to get his Florida driver's license.

"Of course, my computer went down," said Key, recalling Thursday how the routine transaction in tiny Monticello turned into a 20-minute ordeal. So the deputy clerk and the flamboyant billionaire began to chat.

Key let on that her cousins work at Turner's 22,000-acre plantation in nearby Capps, a wide spot in the road along U.S. 27, east of Tallahassee. Turner remarked that it's a small world.

"He was getting kind of restless, but he was a nice guy," said Key, who registered her customer under his legal name, Robert Edward Turner III.

That the pioneer of cable television, a long-time Atlanta resident, would want a Florida driver's license was not terribly big news. Turner had owned the plantation, a hunting preserve called Avalon, since 1984. Locals had glimpsed him over the years, eating in restaurants, hosting fundraisers with former wife Jane Fonda, shopping for sporting goods, paddling down the Wacissa River.

It was a clue, however, to an announcement two days later that would stun the business world. Turner, 64, said Wednesday that he was quitting as vice chairman of AOL Time Warner's board to pursue personal and philanthropic interests and that he was moving his legal residence to Florida.

A spokeswoman said Turner was making the move for tax reasons, news that will cheer Gov. Jeb Bush and his fellow Republicans as they struggle against a tide of new expenses to keep taxes low.

Georgia has an income tax of 6 percent for people in Turner's bracket. Florida has no income tax, and a colorful new resident who qualifies as one of the richest men in the world.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Turner holds about 132-million shares of AOL Time Warner Inc., worth about $1.85-billion, based on Wednesday's closing price of $13.96 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Florida has a history of trying to attract well-heeled Northerners with low taxes, and "it has marvelously succeeded in doing that," said Dominic Calabro, president of Florida TaxWatch, the nonpartisan tax watchdog. "Florida clearly has the largest concentration of millionaires" of any state.

Calabro cited the lack of income and inheritance taxes, as well as limits on property taxes that offer protections for all residents, but especially the wealthy.

Still, Turner's move must be "more than just a cost-saving maneuver," he said. "He could lose that much money or more with one change in the stock market. We welcome him as a citizen who can bring a lot of wonderful ideas to Florida. . . . He's an exciting person. Maybe Georgia's loss is Florida's gain."

High on the list of Turner's philanthropic interests is the family-run Turner Foundation, which gave $70-million in grants last year to environmental groups, including several in Florida.

With 19 homes, Turner is one of the largest private landowners in the nation. He owns ranches in Montana, New Mexico and Nebraska and has ensured that none of them will be developed.

"Private landowners have a responsibility to take care of their land and to undertake only environmentally sound activities on their property," Turner said in 2000 after purchasing an additional 3,620 acres next to Avalon. "That's what we have been doing and will continue to do in northern Florida."

Turner could live anywhere, yet he chooses to spend most of his time at Avalon, according to his son-in-law, Rutherford Seydel, an Atlanta lawyer who tried to broker a deal last August with the Jefferson County School Board.

Turner was offering 100 acres of his North Florida land for a new high school in exchange for the School Board's help in protecting Avalon from trespassers.

Seydel told the board that people come to take pictures of Avalon's main house, a two-story antebellum mansion built in the late 1800s. He complained of break-ins and illegal hunting. He said two of Turner's dogs were killed.

"These are things you wouldn't put up with in your house," Seydel told the board. "I think Ted wants the safety and privacy issues of his property addressed once and for all."

The deal evaporated when the board chose another site for its high school.

Avalon is dripping with southern charm, say those who have been there.

"It's fabulous," said Randy Lewis, principal architect and project manager at Manausa Lewis & Dodson Architects in Tallahassee, which restored the mansion's roof in 1995.

He described a large, sloping lawn that leads from the house to a lake. He remembered horse barns and homes for caretakers, all with steep roofs and stylish cupolas. A clay road lined with a white fence leads to the estate, which Turner uses for hunting ducks, quail, turkey and deer.

"They live a different lifestyle," T.K. Wetherell, the new president of Florida State University, said of Turner and his family. Wetherell's 1,200 acres are surrounded by Turner's land.

"I've seen him quail hunting," Wetherell said. "They have a pretty neat operation, better than the plantations in south Georgia: mule-drawn wagons, bird dogs and horse riders. It's first class."

Wetherell's wife, Ginger, said the couple has been to fundraisers at the plantation. She remembers Turner and Jane Fonda and the large staff, but adds: "They wouldn't know us from Adam's house cat."

Turner's love of the wide open spaces is rooted in his childhood, when he hunted and fished with his father, he told the New York Times in a 1996 interview that betrayed his quirky personality.

That day, the New York Times got a glimpse of the same man that walked into Rhonda Key's office this week. The mogul burst into song: "Give me land, lots of land under starry skies above. Don't fence me in."

-- Information from Times staff writers Lucy Morgan and Craig Pittman and Times researchers Cathy Wos and Kitty Bennett was used in this report.

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