PENSACOLA, Fla. — Governor Ron DeSantis has called a legislative session next week on his property tax relief plan. If passed next week, this Save Our Homes proposal will go before voters in the fall.
The ‘Save Our Homes’ proposal plan would exempt the first $250,000 of a home’s value from taxation and include a schedule for full elimination.
The proposal also includes a 5-year residency requirement to qualify for homestead exemption and would limit future property taxes on businesses.
“Focusing on homestead is a way to show, ‘Look, we think that there’s too much revenue going from taxpayers to these local governments; it doesn’t mean they don’t need anything,'” DeSantis said. “Obviously you have to run services, but all the time the taxpayers are having to pay more and more for basically the same level of services they would have gotten ten years ago, when their property tax bill was a lot less.”
The proposal would require local governments to use remaining property taxes solely for core public needs, including public safety, infrastructure, education, and natural resources.
State representative Alex Andrade, speaking on Pensacola News Radio 92.3, believes it would impact school district budgets and law enforcement agencies in a negative way.
“My rough math says over $40 million in Santa Rosa County and over $70 million in Escambia County are being cut from our school districts’ budgets like in 2027 when it goes into effect,” Andrade said. “This proposal also doesn’t keep law enforcement budgets at least at the same level they are today.”
“This would put no parameters or protections in place for law enforcement agencies; it does allow for paying for law enforcement, but it says nothing about protecting their budgets,” he added.
Pensacola Mayor DC Reeves weighed in on this proposal and how it would impact the city.
“If you take the homestead properties within the City of Pensacola, homestead properties, we believe that 72% of the homestead properties are assessed at under $250,000,” Reeves said. “This would give full property tax relief to 72% of the homes.”
The Florida association of counties website details the property tax levy impact per county in 2027 if passed.
Local counties released preliminary figures on their potential impacts.
In Escambia County, the exemption would result in a $36 million loss in revenue for the 2027-28 fiscal year.
In Santa Rosa County, they would likely lose close to $36 million in revenue.
In Okaloosa County, the county estimates a $25 million drop in revenue.
If passed by state legislators next week, it would go before voters in November and would need a 60% majority to pass.
Thursday we created a digital poll asking for your input with the question, “Do you support the governor’s plan to increase homestead property tax exemptions?”
In a total of over 400 votes, 85% said yes, with 15% answering no.