Supporters promise desperately needed tax relief, and opponents warn of a looming fiscal disaster. If it passes, property taxes would decline significantly, but cities and counties claim they would have to drastically cut services or scramble to replace lost revenue by increasing fees and shifting the tax burden to renters and small businesses.<\/p>\n
State revenue experts<\/a> estimate the first-year impact would be $1.2 billion across Broward, and $1 billion in Palm Beach County.<\/p>\n In Broward as in much of Florida, the amount of property tax revenue grows every year because growth never ends. Cities, counties and school districts get more money every year, even if they don\u2019t raise the tax rate. This is what Gov. Ron DeSantis means by a revenue \u201cwindfall\u201d that local governments use as a \u201cpiggy bank.\u201d<\/p>\n He has a point. When mayors and commissioners boast that they don\u2019t raise taxes, they are referring to the tax rate \u2014 not the amount people pay.<\/p>\n They\u2019re not telling the whole story. They should.<\/p>\n When property values rise, more money flows to City Hall. This is why Florida requires taxing bodies to disclose the \u201crolled-back rate,\u201d the tax rate that would produce the same amount of revenue as last year, excluding new construction.<\/p>\n This chart from Broward County Property Appraiser Marty Kiar shows next year\u2019s projected increases in the taxable value of property for Broward cities. It is a vital factor taxing authorities use to build their budgets, for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1 (in a future issue, we will publish a similar chart for Palm Beach County).<\/p>\n In Fort Lauderdale, taxable property values would rise by 7.2% next year, more than any other large Broward city. It would expand the city\u2019s property tax base by $4.5 million.<\/p>\n That means the city\u2019s property tax rate of 4.2 mills \u2014 unchanged for two decades \u2014 could be applied to an even larger tax base, generating more tax money without raising taxes.<\/p>\n The expanding downtown skyline is an obvious symbol of its healthy tax base. It continues to see strong growth in luxury condos, rentals, hotels and other commercial projects. Fort Lauderdale also has a smaller share of owner-occupied or homesteaded properties than its similarly-sized neighbors \u2014 Pembroke Pines, for instance.<\/p>\n The voter-approved Florida housing assessment cap, Save Our Homes<\/a>, caps annual increases for owners of homesteaded properties at 3% or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. Owners of vacation homes do not qualify for the cap, so their assessments can rise up to 10% a year.<\/p>\n As you ponder whether to vote \u201cyes\u201d or \u201cno\u201d on Amendment 3 in November, be aware of the many\u00a0 property tax implications.<\/p>\n The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida\u2019s upcoming referendum on property taxes means taxpayers and voters should become more knowledgeable on the subject. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[2853,249,251,250,114,482],"class_list":["post-311651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-editorials","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311651","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=311651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Every](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/tfl-l-edboard-taxable-value-report-01.jpg\")
Every Broward city shows a projected yearly increase in the taxable value of its property, so every taxing authority will have a broader tax base from which to collect taxes next year. (Broward County Property Appraiser\/Courtesy)<\/p>\n