![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/MIA_107MiamiSkylineB00NEWPPP.JPG\" "\\"The")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
The Miami skyline from the Rickenbacker Causeway.<\/p>\n
Pedro Portal<\/p>\n
pportal@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n
Florida lawmakers want to slash property taxes just as Miami\u2019s mayor wants to borrow $450 million \u2014 and both questions could land on the same November ballot. The Miami Herald Editorial Board says the timing could be chaotic.<\/p>\n
Here are key takeaways:<\/p>\n
Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins is pushing a $450 million bond referendum to fix crumbling police and fire buildings. Commissioners blocked it from the August primary and will decide in July whether to put it on November\u2019s ballot, creating a potential collision with the state tax-cut vote<\/a>.The proposed constitutional amendment being pushed by the state would raise Florida\u2019s homestead exemption from $50,000 to $250,000, and the Florida League of Cities estimates Miami would lose about $37 million in taxable property values the first year. And bond ratings could take a hit<\/a>.The bonds would cost the average household roughly $120 more per year in property taxes, and Commissioner Damian Pardo argues Higgins should first explore public-private partnerships and lease revenue from Miami Freedom Park and Watson Island before piling on debt, calling the deferred maintenance a \u201ccalamity\u201d but not endorsing her fix<\/a>.State lawmakers approved the tax cut amendment Tuesday without doing a fiscal impact study \u2014 even though they had more than a year \u2014 essentially punting the math to voters, a move former Republican state Sen. Jeff Brandes called \u201ca leap of faith\u201d<\/a> rather than real reform.Democrats tried to sunset the cuts after a few years so the impact could be reassessed, but that idea went nowhere. Incoming House Speaker Sam Garrison says he doesn\u2019t support using state dollars to backfill local budget gaps \u2014 despite Gov. Ron DeSantis brushing off the cost as \u201cbudget dust\u201d in a $110 billion budget, according to the Miami Herald Editorial Board<\/a>.DeSantis launched a calculator at saveourhomesfl.com that lets homeowners plug in their address to see potential savings, but the tool ignores the fine print: counties could lose as much as $10 billion, and services like libraries, parks and public safety could suffer, in what the editorial board calls \u201cthe gamification of our property tax problems\u201d<\/a>.DeSantis also wants $5.5 million in taxpayer money to send property appraiser mailers promoting the amendment \u2014 potentially running afoul of a law passed last year that bars public money from being used for political advertising on proposed amendments, a law aimed at DeSantis himself<\/a> after he spent millions fighting marijuana and abortion measures.<\/p>\n The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. The source reporting referenced above was written and edited entirely by journalists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Miami skyline from the Rickenbacker Causeway. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com Florida lawmakers want to slash property taxes just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-296975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296975","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=296975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}