{"id":299721,"date":"2026-06-08T09:35:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T09:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/299721\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T09:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T09:35:07","slug":"how-far-does-floridas-property-tax-proposal-go-there-are-some-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/299721\/","title":{"rendered":"How far does Florida\u2019s property tax proposal go? There are some questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida lawmakers have sent<\/a> a major property tax proposal to voters. But there are questions about how far the plan could actually go.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what\u2019s sure: if at least 60%<\/a> of voters approve the measure in November, it would significantly expand property tax exemptions.<\/p>\n

The exemption would cover $250,000 of a primary home’s value by 2028, though homeowners would still have to pay the portion of the tax that goes to schools. (The other portion goes to local government services, which critics warn could be impacted<\/a> by the measure.)<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s where questions start to emerge: \u201cIt requires the Legislature to adopt a schedule to make homesteads fully exempt,\u201d Gov. Ron DeSantis wrote on social media<\/a>. \u201cThe $250k is the initial salvo.\u201d<\/p>\n

The summary for the ballot says something similar, describing how it \u201crequires, through general law, a schedule for full elimination.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the language in the actual proposal isn\u2019t as direct. The proposed constitutional language refers to a legislatively-set procedure for counties and municipalities to increase exemptions \u201cup to all remaining assessed valuation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Questioned by the Tampa Bay Times<\/a> during last week\u2019s special session, Sen. Bryan Avila, R-Miami, said the language only called on lawmakers to create a tax reduction process local governments could choose to use.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they wanted to go beyond the $250,000, they would be able to,\u201d said Avila, who sponsored the Senate version of the proposal.<\/p>\n

If the Legislature wanted to increase exemptions, he said they\u2019d have to put another measure on the ballot for voters.<\/p>\n

The House sponsor, though, indicated it could \u201ctheoretically\u201d allow lawmakers alone to increase exemptions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would suggest that that’s probably not going to happen, but again, we’re in conjecture land,” said Rep. Toby Overdorf, R-Palm City. “We’re getting into the parts of the discussion that are going to happen between now and November of what could happen with this constitutional amendment. There’ll be some rulings on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Brian Nathan, D-Tampa, said the Legislature should\u2019ve figured all that out before passing the proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is going to generate some confusion,\u201d he said. “If we’re going to seriously and meaningfully provide relief through property tax reform, whatever that looks like, this isn’t it.”<\/p>\n

The proposal passed through a two-day special session, days after Gov. Ron DeSantis called for it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But Florida TaxWatch encouraged lawmakers to take their time, saying a tax commission should review and recommend a plan.<\/p>\n

“Your confusion is understandable, and you just think about voters trying to go to the ballot and figure all this out,\u201d said Jeff Kottkamp, president and CEO of the organization. \u201cThat’s one of the reasons we really were hoping that they would take their time.”<\/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>\n

This 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":"Florida lawmakers have sent a major property tax proposal to voters. But there are questions about how far…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-299721","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\/299721","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=299721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}