TALLAHASSEE, FLA. (WSVN) - Florida lawmakers are finalizing the details on what Gov. Ron DeSantis calls a major tax relief plan, but critics of the plan said it may actually have the opposite effect.
The governor said the plan aims to eventually phase out all the numbers on notices like the proposed property tax forms that the state’s homeowners receive every year. How to implement this and the fallout are the subject of the special session that got underway Monday.
“Nothing we can do, though, would be more significant than this property tax,” said DeSantis during a recent news conference. “That’s a massive amount of folks that are going to have this major lifeline where they’re not gonna have to worry about [paying] that.”
Lawmakers gathered Monday to finalize the details of what will end up on the November ballot.
DeSantis is proposing to raise the homestead exemption to $150,000 in 2027. The value of a property beyond that is taxable.
The governor’s plan then intends to raise the exemption to $250,000 in 2028, something that would require lawmakers to come up with a schedule for full elimination.
Homeowners must have residency of five years after Jan. 1, 2027 to get the savings.
Lawmakers have bounced around several plans for months. Their big concern: What to do about local governments that depend on that money for police, fire, transportation, water and sewer, roads, parks and libraries.
“It’s paradoxical how little people actually know about what their taxes buy them,” said Pembroke Pines Mayor Angelo Castillo.
When asked how local government would handle this change, Miami-Dade Property Appraiser Tomas Regalado replied, “Well, just raising all their fees, raising all their permits. They can figure it out. They have to be creative. A lot of big decisions have to be made.”
Lawmakers who are skeptical of the current plan said it’s less of a tax cut and more of a tax shift, because someone will end up paying.
“I want, when I dial 911, I want the fire trucks, the ambulance and the police at my home. I want the parks in my community, I want the schools. You can’t get something for nothing,” said Florida State Rep. Robin Bartleman.
Counties and cities are starting to crunch the numbers.
According to the Broward County Property Appraiser’s Office, in 2027, the average savings for a Broward property owner would be about $2,100, lowering money coming into the county by about 10%. Public schools would lose 13% of their budget. In the second year, with an increased homestead exemption, the average savings would be $4,129. County revenue would decrease 18%, and money for schools would be down 20%.
And with eventual full elimination of property taxes, average savings would be about $5,278. County revenue would be down 34%, and schools would lose 35%.
Where taxpayers live would make a difference.
“Pembroke Park has very few homesteaded properties. It’s mostly a mobile home and a commercial community. They would only lose about 1.2% of the money that they collect; that’s negligible,” said Broward County Property Appraiser Marty Kiar. “Cooper City is a bedroom community. They’re pretty much all homesteaded properties. They would lose maybe 34%, 35% of the money they collect in property taxes, because that’s the majority of their revenue, and that only goes up.”
According to the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser’s Office, in 2027, the average savings for a homeowner would be nearly $1,700, lowering county revenue by $130 million. By 2028, the average savings for a homeowner would be nearly $2,800, lowering county revenue by $222 million.
Some Floridians headed up to Tallahassee to inform the committee overseeing the bill about what they believe could happen if the bill becomes law and funding is slashed for local communities.
“There is no greater tragedy than knowing that you could’ve saved a life when the resources weren’t available and we didn’t get there fast enough,” said Florida Fire Chiefs Association Michael Tucker.
But the governor said the state will establish a trust fund to help cover the costs.
“That revenue can only be used for schools, for police, for fire first, and the core services that we all agree on,” said DeSantis.
Florida House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell voiced her concerns about the governor’s plans on Wednesday.
“It leaves the door open for the state to choose who gets help and who does not,” she said.
Lawmakers are hammering out the details, but voters will ultimately decide in November.
“I take issue when municipal governments, state governments, county governments say that we’re going to lose revenue. It’s not the state’s money, it’s not the municipality’s money. This is the money of the taxpayer; they get to choose,” said Florida State Rep. Tom Fabricio.
But other Republicans have concerns.
“I’ll use Doral again as an example, or City of Homestead, which is where I currently live. All of these great parks that we have for our residents, you don’t really have to pay anything to use them. Now you may have to start paying,” said Florida State Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez.
“I personally would like to see a school carve out, and I think that has created some angst and some concern,” said State Rep. Alex Rizo.
On Monday afternoon, in an effort to protect public schools, several lawmakers filed amendments to alter the governor’s plan and keep school district taxes intact. That amendment is now being discussed this week.
“Schools are exempt — period, full stop, end of story,” said Florida State Rep. Sam Garrison.
What exactly what will be on the ballot in Novermber, if anything, is expected to be made clear by Wednesday.
Once on the ballot, Florida voters will have to pass the amendment by at least 60% approval.
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