{"id":290234,"date":"2026-05-30T16:39:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T16:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/290234\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T16:39:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T16:39:07","slug":"the-calm-before-the-property-tax-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/290234\/","title":{"rendered":"The calm before the property tax storm"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three days. That\u2019s how much time Gov. Ron DeSantis has blocked out<\/a> for the special session on property taxes.<\/p>\n

The sixth special session in 18 months starts Monday in Tallahassee. The potential impacts of what\u2019s being considered are impossible to fully calculate. If you have never paid any attention to what happens at the state Capitol, now is the time to do it.<\/p>\n

DeSantis wants lawmakers to put a question before voters<\/a> in November to expand the Florida homestead exemption in stages, first for all homesteaded properties taxed at $150,000 or less, then a year later on properties taxed at $250,000 or less. He also proposes reducing the annual increase in property tax assessments on non-homesteaded property from 10% to 5%.<\/p>\n

\"Steve<\/p>\n

Mike Stocker\/Sun Sentinel<\/p>\n

Steve Bousquet is a Sun Sentinel columnist who began reporting in Broward County in 1981.<\/p>\n

The bill is Senate Joint Resolution 2-F<\/a>, to be considered Monday afternoon by the Senate Appropriations Committee, in a three-hour hearing. Floor debate begins on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

For months, DeSantis has denounced the evil of local property taxes, often falsely claiming that because of property taxes, \u201cthe government owns your home.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeSantis is poised to perpetrate the biggest tax shift in Florida history.<\/p>\n

His proposal could be a financial disaster for the nearly 40% of Floridians who rent their homes, because they can\u2019t afford to buy, and landlords, who won\u2019t get a tax cut, would be forced to raise rents.<\/p>\n

The far-reaching impacts \u2014 on renters, businesses, county and services \u2014 are not fully known, and they won\u2019t be by the time this session adjourns Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Because the tax question is a proposed amendment to Florida\u2019s constitution, it must be approved by three-fifths of the members of both houses \u2014 24 senators and 72 representatives.<\/p>\n

Sadly, a prime co-sponsor of the tax shift is a Democrat, Sen. Mack Bernard<\/a> of West Palm Beach. Any Democrat who supports this proposal makes it all that harder to defeat it.<\/p>\n

Like DeSantis has done before on ballot questions involving abortion rights and marijuana use, he already has his thumb on the scale.<\/p>\n

He wants the question to be exempt fron the 75-word limit that applies to other ballot questions in hopes of making it easier to pass.<\/p>\n

He wants to require county property appraisers to send notices to homeowners, notifying them of the question \u2014 to make it appear, falsely, that local tax experts are cheerleading in support of the question. The notice would be written by the Department of Revenue, a state agency, and cannot be changed by property appraisers.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly one side of the story is going to be told: the potential cost savings in property taxes,\u201d says a report for House Democrats. \u201cNo effort is made to discuss impact on local government budgets or services, or the need to offset lost property taxes with additional fees or assessments.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is unfair on its face, and Florida counties and cities are now prohibited<\/a> from using any public funds to tell their side of the story.<\/p>\n

An analysis by Broward County Property Appraiser Marty Kiar shows that the countywide impact of a first-year $150,000 homestead exemption would be $195 million. The impact of a $250,000 exemption would be $334 million. The memo says a typical homeowner\u2019s tax savings would be $2,146.<\/p>\n

As proposed, public safety \u2014 police, fire-rescue and EMS services \u2014 would be exempt from any tax impact, along with public schools, infrastructure, natural resources, public employee pensions and bond obligations.<\/p>\n

But that leaves just about everything else: parks and recreation, code enforcement, homelessness, trash pickup, transit, and grants to nonprofits. An alert produced by the city of Fort Lauderdale lists possible consequences: a much higher tax rate, hiring freezes, higher taxes on small businesses and higher rents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis proposal would shift costs and service reductions onto residents, businesses and visitors who rely on safe streets, reliable emergency response, and well-maintained public spaces in Broward County\u2019s urban core,\u201d says a city of Fort Lauderdale memo to legislators. \u201cAbsent alternative revenue, the city may be forced to either raise millage on non-homesteaded properties or implement deep cuts that undermine public safety, economic vitality, and quality of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Polls show strong support for cutting property taxes, driven largely by anxiety over the lack of housing affordability.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s no guarantee that this proposal will pass in November.<\/p>\n

For this tax shift to take effect, 60% of voters must approve. The last time voters were asked to approve an increase in the homestead exemption, it failed, when it received 58% support in the 2018 general election. It was Amendment 1 that year, sponsored by the Legislature \u2014 the only ballot question that failed that year.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s hope that once again, Florida voters are smarter than Florida politicians think they are.<\/p>\n

Every bill filed in the Legislature is analyzed by its staff for its fiscal impacts. The analysis for the property tax cut proposal describes the impact as \u201cnegative and indeterminate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Negative and indeterminate. That sums it up nicely.<\/p>\n

Steve Bousquet is Opinion Editor of the Sun Sentinel and a columnist in Tallahassee and Fort Lauderdale. Contact him at sbousquet@sunsentinel.com<\/a> or (850) 567-2240.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three days. That\u2019s how much time Gov. Ron DeSantis has blocked out for the special session on property…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[12150,483,249,251,250,114,482,12151],"class_list":["post-290234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-columnists","tag-commentary","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-opinion","tag-opinion-columnists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290234","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=290234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}