TAMPA, Fla. — While Gov. Ron DeSantis said a ballot measure to eliminate the homestead property tax would ease a big burden for millions of Floridians if passed, some officials Spectrum Bay News 9 spoke with in St. Petersburg and Tampa said it would mean tough decisions for local governments.
“Police, fire, repaving your roads — all the things you think about the city of Tampa,” Tampa City Council Chair Alan Clendenin said of some of the departments and projects property tax helps fund.
And he was not alone in saying that.
“There’s a lot of core services that, hopefully, we’ll be able to maintain, including our public safety,” said St. Petersburg City Councilman Corey Givens, Jr. “Those non-core services, like our libraries, our parks, even our nonprofit organizations — all of that is at risk.”
DeSantis said Monday the plan would take funding levels back a few years, not decades. Still, local leaders said that the loss will have to be made up somewhere.
“It’s another day for political — I would say ‘political theater’ — here in Florida, but it’s more like a political clown show,” Clendenin said of his reaction to the news that the state legislature approved the property tax constitutional amendment.
In a special session, lawmakers gave the okay to put a measure on November’s ballot that would eliminate property taxes on primary residences. It’s a move pushed by DeSantis that he said will save taxpayers money.
“That’s the most dishonest thing about what these politicians in Tallahassee just did,” said Clendenin. “It’s not a tax cut, it is a tax shift.”
Clendenin said because of changes made to the plan, like protecting school taxes from being cut, he’s not sure exactly how much revenue Tampa stands to lose, but he said the city runs lean as it is.
“The tax, the revenues are going to have to come from somewhere else, because we can’t cut back our police. We can’t cut back our fire,” he said.
“Homestead is about 30% of all revenue from property tax that local governments take in, but they also take in a lot more money than that, let’s just be clear,” DeSantis said Monday.
The governor said Hillsborough County collected $850 million in property tax revenue in 2018. He said that it jumped to $1.6 billion in 2025 and is projected to grow to $2.4 billion by 2031 if nothing changes. According to DeSantis, if the plan to eliminate the homestead property tax passes, Hillsborough County is still estimated to collect $1.4 billion in 2028.
“So, anytime anyone tells you, ‘We’re not going to be able to fund anything. We’re going to have to disband the sheriff’s department. We’re going to have to disband police,’ obviously, that’s not true because they didn’t disband in 2024 when they were taking in a similar amount,” he said.
“Once again, this governor has stooped to a new low,” said Givens. “Here he is, trying to strip local governments of their autonomy and the power to help regular, everyday, working-class people.”
St. Petersburg City Council voted unanimously last week to pass a resolution asking the legislature to carefully consider the impacts of property tax reform. Givens said the city could lose $78 million in revenue if the measure passes.
“There are ways to ease the burden, but what we don’t want to do is pass that cost onto rate payers or our constituents,” Givens said.
The measure would require 60% voter support to pass. Givens said it’s important that voters are educated about what eliminating the tax would mean for them, including how services they rely on could be impacted.