BELLEAIR BLUFFS — The dog days of summer fueled by budget planning sessions and public hearings have dissolved into quiet end-of-the-year meetings where local governments wrap up loose ends.
In Belleair and Belleair Bluffs, the commission agendas for November were mainly filled with housekeeping items and calendar recaps with the busy holiday special events season right around the corner.
But one hot-button topic traversed the two miles between the town halls.
Officials of both municipalities addressed the state Legislature’s proposal to allow residents to vote next year to eliminate property taxes — and with it, the ad valorem tax revenue most cities use as a primary source to fund education, public safety and emergency services, road maintenance and capital improvement projects and more.
“I was thinking about it, and I said the only way that you win these things is with little, concise soundbites,” Mayor Chris Arbutine said during the Nov. 17 Belleair Bluffs City Commission meeting, referring to the war of words with state politicians touting the economic benefits of eliminating property taxes.
Arbutine said he created two sentences that succinctly explain the issue.
“A vote for no ad valorem tax is a vote to defund our city,” he said he tells residents. “And a vote to defund our city makes us a ward of the state.”
Arbutine, now in his 25th year and believed to be the longest tenured mayor in Florida, said local government “is the only place where your money actually gets used for things like fire trucks and police cars and ambulances and signs and roads and lights and all the things you see.” He added that eliminating ad valorem taxes would cause a chain reaction many small communities would struggle to recover from.
“They are going to say, ‘You don’t have to pay ad valorem taxes to these terrible local politicians,’” he said. “And then they’re going to say, ‘Oh my goodness, we just didn’t think it was going to create this big of a problem. Now we’ve got to create a new tax. But don’t worry, we’re going to handle all your taxes at the state level, and we’re going to control the purse strings.’”
Arbutine argued the move is being pushed “by state guys” living in a bubble.
“There’s nothing wrong with them,” he said. “But they’re in a bubble, and they don’t know what’s going on around here.”
He said that disconnect would have severe repercussions for Pinellas County residents.
“That vote (to eliminate property taxes) will make you become a ward of the state, and that means we’ll be totally dependent on state government. Totally dependent,” Arbutine said. “And if you don’t trust your city government, which is your neighbors … can you imagine trying to get a hold of state politicians, especially when there’s all kinds of money involved?
“I don’t think anyone wants the state to tell us what’s good for us.”
Arbutine, who has not hesitated to share his views this year on subjects ranging from the Florida DOGE investigations in Pinellas County to legalized sports gambling, then made a bombshell claim about what he was told would happen if he speaks against the property tax measure once it’s on the 2026 ballot.
“They have told local politicians that we will get arrested if we lobby against it,” he said. “If I come up here after they do that and I say exactly what I just said just now, on the dais, they can come arrest me.”
When someone in the room said, “that’s freedom of speech,” Arbutine replied, “Apparently not. They’re going to muzzle us. They want to muzzle us. So, I’m just saying there’s a lot of weird things going on here, and these little soundbites I’m creating I’m creating because it’s too complicated a question.”
In Belleair the next night, officials addressed the property tax elimination proposal in a different manner.
Town Manager Gay Lancaster said they want residents to understand the issue.
“We put in front of you the first piece of information we’re going to be putting on our website,” Lancaster said Nov. 18. “There are many items up for discussion by the Legislature regarding property taxes, and we feel like it’s important to help people understand what their property taxes are paying for.”
Lancaster said the information breaks down of where property tax dollars go, with roughly one-third each to Pinellas County Schools, Pinellas County government and the municipality.
She noted the majority of Belleair’s revenue comes from ad valorem taxes, as the small bedroom community has very little commercial property to generate tax dollars.
“I do want to say, as our first piece notes, that 60% of our budget is supported by ad valorem (taxes),” Lancaster said. She added that the town plans to host public information meetings, “so people can come and ask questions, and we can respond regarding what might be proposed as far as the Legislature and the potential to eliminate some or all ad valorem taxes.”
Meanwhile, down the road in the Bluffs, Arbutine is preparing for a potential standoff.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen with the ad valorem. But it’s going to be a tough road to hoe,” he said.
“It’s going to be tough, but we have to do the best we can. And I’ll probably get arrested. Because I just can’t keep my mouth shut!”