ST. CLOUD, Fla. \u2013 Another Central Florida city is taking a hard look at what deep budget cuts could look like if a sweeping property tax measure passes in November.<\/p>\n
St. Cloud is the latest municipality to grapple with the potential fallout from a proposed amendment that would exempt the first $150,000 of a homestead property\u2019s value from taxation, and up to $250,000 by 2028. <\/p>\n
Today, the city is holding a workshop to discuss \u201cProperty Tax Reform Impacts and City Fees.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shellie Giroux rents in St. Cloud but owns a home in Tennessee, and she says property taxes are exactly why she has not bought in Florida.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d pay a house off, but just the taxes at my age, you know, I\u2019m getting ready to do Social Security. I won\u2019t be able to pay them,\u201d Giroux said.<\/p>\n
[WATCH: Florida Legislature OKs tweaked property tax amendment for November ballot]<\/p>\n
She supports the proposal and plans to vote in favor of the proposed amendment in November.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a yes for me, and I think it\u2019s fair that people who don\u2019t live here should have to pay their taxes on a second home,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Not everyone shares that enthusiasm. Dale Woodcock says his property taxes are relatively low in St. Cloud and worries the amendment could simply shift the financial burden elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomehow the city has to raise taxes to support police and fire, keep the roads up, and everything. So, if we have this reform where nobody pays property taxes, then the only way the city can raise money is through user fees. So, then your water bills go up, all your licensing fees go up,\u201d Woodcock said.<\/p>\n
St. Cloud has more than 15,000 homesteaded homes \u2014 roughly 68% of the city, according to city data.<\/p>\n
[WATCH: Local governments warn of revenue losses under Florida tax proposal]<\/p>\n
The concerns extend well beyond St. Cloud. The mayor of Sanford has said the city would lose $15 million in revenue<\/a> if the amendment passes. Leaders in Oviedo warn that an $18.2 million police station expansion could be at risk<\/a>. Ocoee officials project losing<\/a> $4.1 million in the first year alone, and up to $8 million by 2028.<\/p>\n Critics argue the measure would cripple local government budgets, while supporters believe it would bring meaningful tax relief to Florida homeowners.<\/p>\n The November vote will determine whether the amendment clears the required 60% threshold needed to take effect.<\/p>\n The workshop is at 2:30 p.m. at St. Cloud City Hall.<\/p>\n Breaking News Alerts<\/p>\n Get breaking news alerts delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. CLOUD, Fla. \u2013 Another Central Florida city is taking a hard look at what deep budget cuts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8184,28,30,29,2161,1976,99,7074,5136],"class_list":["post-307808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-election-2026","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-government","tag-osceola-county","tag-politics","tag-property-taxes","tag-st-cloud"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307808","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=307808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}