have long discussed<\/a> either abolishing, reforming, or tweaking property taxes. Now, lawmakers will have a chance to tackle the issue starting Monday.<\/p>\nUnder the proposed plan by DeSantis, homeowners must have resided in Florida for 5 years after Jan. 1, 2027, to be eligible.<\/p>\n
However, officials in cities and counties across the state are questioning where they will get their revenue, as property taxes are the primary source.<\/p>\n
In a commissioner\u2019s meeting back in February, Pembroke Pines Mayor Angelo Castillo sounded the alarm.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do we do about parks? What do we do about road construction? Road and bridge fund? What do we do about general government administration? How does that get paid for?\u201d said Castillo.<\/p>\n
Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis told 7News earlier this year he was also worried about the impact of some of the proposals being discussed in Tallahassee.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome cities rely almost 100% on property taxes. Fort Lauderdale is about 45%, but the point is that there\u2019s a question of whether you want to reduce services or whether you want to increase taxes on other properties,\u201d said Trantalis.<\/p>\n
But Miami-Dade Property Appraiser Tom\u00e1s Regalado said cities will have to take drastic measures to make up the lost revenue.<\/p>\n
\u201cRaising all their fees, raising all their permits. They can figure it out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Some Democratic lawmakers in Tallahassee said cities could also charge entrance fees for parks to raise revenue, hurting families.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Families] roll up to a park and they want to take their kids to play, and they can\u2019t come in because they\u2019re told they gotta pay a fee,\u201d said Florida Rep. Fentrice Driskell (D-Tampa). \u201cOr there is a kid who at home may not have reliable access to internet and they go to the library to do their homework but they can\u2019t come in because they have to pay a fee.\u201d<\/p>\n
But DeSantis said he\u2019s also proposing a trust fund to help cover the costs of cities\u2019 and counties\u2019 core services.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat revenue can only be used for schools, police, firefighters, and the core services that we all agree on. It\u2019s not going to be allowed to be used on some of the other things that I know are a little bit more divisive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Regalado said that with all these proposals being presented, a final proposal to reform property taxes will be added to Florida\u2019s ballot come November in some form or another.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is certain that something is going to get on the ballot. People need help,\u201d said Regalado.<\/p>\n
Even if lawmakers pass the governor\u2019s proposal during the special session, it will still need to go before Florida voters during the November elections, and it would require 60% approval for it to pass.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/p>\n
\tJoin our Newsletter for the latest news right to your inbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called for a special session to tackle property taxes.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-286908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}