Image via the city of Port St. Lucie.
As a resident of Port St. Lucie for more than 30 years, I’ve seen up close why we are one of Florida’s fastest-growing cities.
Port St. Lucie was named an All-America City in 2025. We have been the safest large city in the state for more than a decade. We’ve been recognized as one of the best places to live in the U.S., for economic growth opportunities and as a top market for homebuyers.
So, it is understandable that people want to move here. We see evidence of that growth every day, with more people on our roads, enjoying our parks and shopping at our businesses.
That’s why conversations about revisions to the property tax structures are particularly concerning in fast-growing communities like ours.
In Port St. Lucie’s relatively short history, we have learned how important — and challenging — it is to plan for the future while meeting the needs of our residents today.
As Florida grows, cities must expand roads, add police officers, increase water and wastewater capacity, invest in stormwater systems and scale emergency response.
These investments aren’t optional. They are absolutely essential to keeping neighborhoods safe, homes habitable and daily life functioning.
As a former President of the Florida League of Cities, I know Port St. Lucie is not alone. Communities statewide are grappling with how to fund infrastructure, public safety and services in the face of rapid growth and evolving policy proposals.
In established or slow-growth communities, changes to revenue streams may take years to show their impact. In fast-growing cities, the effects are felt almost immediately. Even modest reductions in stable revenue sources can mean delayed road projects, stretched emergency response times or slower expansion of critical services residents already rely on — and demand — from local government.
Property taxes remain the most predictable and locally controlled revenue source cities have. They fund the essential services that residents expect to receive without add-on fees, separate invoices, or toll booths.
These essential services include police protection, road maintenance, storm preparedness, clean, reliable water and more. When that revenue is disrupted without a clear, reliable replacement, the need for those essential services doesn’t go away — but the funding to pay for them would.
This is not an argument against tax reform. The city of Port St. Lucie strives to be fiscally responsible and operated like a business. We share the goal of making life more affordable for Floridians.
Over the last 10 years we’ve maintained one of the lowest municipal tax rates in the state, reduced our debt, improved our credit ratings and kept our staffing ratios low. We work hard to bring in funds through grants, public-private partnerships and more to offset costs to taxpayers.
But changing the revenue model without adjusting expectations could unintentionally dismantle the very services that make communities like ours safe, livable and resilient.
In Port St. Lucie, we must balance the impacts of new residents with maintaining quality of life for those who already call our city home. That means planning ahead, building capacity before systems fail and ensuring essential services keep pace with population increases. Stable revenue sources are the foundation that makes responsible growth possible.
If we want quality of life in Florida to remain a success story, we must ensure that revenue discussions are grounded in the realities local governments face every day.
Responsible planning requires aligning funding with residents’ expectations. Otherwise, the costs of change will be felt on our streets, in our neighborhoods and in the services residents depend on most.
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Jolien Caraballo is the Port St. Lucie Vice Mayor and the immediate past President of the Florida League of Cities.