financially-constrained counties<\/a>. Despite that, all but a couple voted yes.<\/p>\nAt least 60% of voters in November also need to vote yes for the reduction to take effect.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe details of how to come to a final product has been a long road, but I’m proud of the opportunity that we are giving the voters by letting them decide if this is something that’s going to come to fruition or not,” said House Speaker Daniel Perez. <\/p>\n
Most Democrats came out against the plan, saying it will harm local government services.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will have to spend the summer and the early fall educating voters about what\u2019s going to happen as a result of this bill,\u201d said Senate Democratic Leader Lori Berman. \u201cI\u2019m really worried about the impact on our local counties and cities. I think it could potentially bankrupt some.\u201d<\/p>\n
Democrats also called the plan a \u201ctax shift,\u201d saying it’ll lead to an increase in fees to cover costs.<\/p>\n
Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the plan last week. Lawmakers considered and approved the proposal, which has huge implications for Florida\u2019s tax structure and local governments, in a two-day special session. The quick pace drew Democratic complaints, too.<\/p>\n
But what exactly would the plan do?<\/p>\n
If approved by voters, it would greatly increase homestead exemptions on the property taxes that don’t go toward schools.<\/p>\n
By next year, homeowners would not have to pay those taxes on the first $150,000 of their house’s value, up from $50,000 now. The exemption rises to $250,000 in 2028.<\/p>\n
Those who move to Florida starting next year would have to live in the state for five years before qualifying for the larger homestead exemption.<\/p>\n
The plan says local governments can only use property tax revenues for \u201ccore services,\u201d such as public safety, education, administrative costs and infrastructure.<\/p>\n
The proposal also implicates non-homestead properties, like businesses and rental units. Right now, the taxable value of those properties can rise by as much as 10 percent a year. The amendment would cut that in half.<\/p>\n
And the homestead exemptions could grow even larger. The proposal directs lawmakers to create a path to fully eliminate the taxes down the line, though there are questions on how that would work.<\/p>\n
The plan is not completely what DeSantis wanted.<\/p>\n
The biggest change lawmakers made was excluding school property taxes from the expanded exemption. They also left out DeSantis’ idea to create a trust fund to help local governments with lost revenue.<\/p>\n
If you have any questions about state government or the legislative process, you can ask the Your Florida team\u00a0by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\nThis story was produced by WUSF as part of a statewide journalism initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The November election just got even more important in Florida. State lawmakers on Tuesday approved a ballot proposal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-293629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293629","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=293629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}