![\"Madison](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/12557a67-0e1e-4634-8b86-01ee65820479_1742943240.jpg\")
<\/a>CAPE CORAL, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\nThis November, Florida voters will decide whether to cut property taxes that many of you pay across the state.<\/p>\n
Cities like Cape Coral have big concerns about what those cuts might do to city budgets. The mayor said some tough decisions may follow November’s vote. <\/p>\n
“Nobody wants to pay higher taxes, but the flip side is, where does the money come from?” said Cape Coral resident Nancy Riff. <\/p>\n
As voters like Riff consider cutting property taxes through the ballot box, many are also wondering what the tradeoff could be. <\/p>\n
“I want my library to be able to have books on the shelves. I want my sidewalks to be repaired. I want my streets to be repaired,” Riff said. <\/p>\n
The plan you’ll vote on gives primary residents a $150,000 homestead exemption<\/a> in 2027. That exemption increases to $250,000 in 2028.<\/p>\n If approved, those exemptions could leave a big hole in city budgets. <\/p>\n “Losing $46 million in revenue, it’s impossible to keep the same level of service that we had today,” said Cape Coral Mayor John Gunter.<\/p>\n The city of Cape Coral sent a letter to the Lee County Legislative Delegation outlining concerns. <\/p>\n “Public safety is pretty much exempt as far as any impact, but other services here in the city will be affected,” Gunter said. <\/p>\n City leaders may have to change the way they pay for essential services you rely on every day if the idea is approved. <\/p>\n “We need to consider our roadways. We need to consider our sidewalks. I mean, there’s a lot of infrastructure needs that our city has because we’re still not built out. So, I look forward to seeing what the voters have to say,” said Cape Coral council member Jennifer Nelson-Lastra. <\/p>\n Ultimately, the decision will be up to voters. However, remember to do your homework before casting your ballot. <\/p>\n “I think most people do not research or do not read before they make a vote,” Riff said. <\/p>\n The mayor says a decision won’t be made until after November, but city leaders will likely start having periodic meetings to discuss. <\/p>\n DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app<\/a>\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app<\/a> to stream news, entertainment, and original programming on your TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cape Coral leaders examine how property tax cuts could strain budget and essential services CAPE CORAL, Fla. \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,123480,123479,121031,88176],"class_list":["post-295180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-streams","tag-us-privacy-notice-term","tag-use-nextfre","tag-wbbh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295180","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=295180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}