{"id":38766,"date":"2025-11-08T13:04:30","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T13:04:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/38766\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T13:04:30","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T13:04:30","slug":"florida-local-leaders-sound-alarm-about-potential-property-tax-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/38766\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida local leaders sound alarm about potential property tax cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Momentum for drastically reducing property taxes in Florida is seemingly unstoppable. So city, town, village and county officials have stepped up warnings about the jeopardy such cuts present to the local government services people rely on for their safety and quality of life.<\/p>\n

Even if every last dollar of what critics deem wasteful or frivolous is squeezed out of local government budgets, they argue the savings would fall far short of the money needed to make up for the kind of cuts being contemplated in Tallahassee.<\/p>\n

Programs and services that range from roads and sidewalks to parks and libraries would be cut, they say.<\/p>\n

Even the most politically sacred priority, public safety \u2014 including spending on police, sheriff\u2019s deputies, fire-rescue and 911 \u2014 would suffer, they say, dismissing assurances from advocates of slashing property taxes that those budgets would be protected.<\/p>\n

The prospect of property tax cuts, and the effects, has been a central issue at recent gatherings of state legislators in South Florida and at the state Capitol in Tallahassee, and at meetings of the region\u2019s city, town, village and county officials.<\/p>\n

State legislators, including those sympathetic to local governments, were blunt in their assessments.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to justify your existence,\u201d said state Sen. Barbara Sharief, a Broward Democrat and former county commissioner, elected twice by her colleagues to serve terms as county mayor, and former Miramar city commissioner.<\/p>\n

State Rep. Rep. Robin Bartleman, a Democratic former member of the Broward School Board and Weston City Commission, recently told local government officials: \u201cYou are going to be fighting for your lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

The push<\/p>\n

Gov. Ron DeSantis put the idea at the top of the Florida agenda when he started talking early this year about eliminating property taxes.<\/p>\n

DeSantis is seeking a dramatic d\u00e9nouement before term limits end his time as governor after next year\u2019s elections. A legacy including something as big as a radical reduction in property taxes could help DeSantis sell himself to primary voters if he makes another attempt to win the Republican presidential nomination.<\/p>\n

Talk earlier in the year of eliminating property taxes had been scaled back in recent months. A range of proposals have been introduced in advance of the 2026 legislative\u00a0session that would leave school taxes in place and eliminate, phase out or substantially reduce other governments\u2019 property taxes on owner-occupied homes.<\/p>\n

So many competing political interests are interacting on the issue that no one knows just what\u2019s going to happen, when and how, and the financial implications for local governments and taxpayers.<\/p>\n

Republicans who control the state House of Representatives have put forward seven proposed amendments to the state Constitution, some of which would dramatically reduce or eliminate property taxes for homeowners \u2014 and dramatically reduce revenue to local government.<\/p>\n

Some would be far reaching and others would be targeted. And some are contradictory. One, for example, would eliminate all non-school taxes on owner-occupied residential property. Another would implement a phase out over 10 years. And another would eliminate non-school taxes for homeowners older than 65.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are screaming for relief,\u201d said state Rep. Chip LaMarca, a Republican and former Broward County commissioner and Lighthouse Point city commissioner.<\/p>\n

And Republicans who control the state Senate say they, too, want property tax reductions. Sen. Bryan Avila, the Republican chair of the Finance and Tax Committee, said at its most recent meeting that the Senate president is \u201ccommitted to the issue and committed to providing property tax relief.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though many Democrats are wary or opposed to the moves, not all are. Broward County Commissioner Michael Udine, a former county mayor and former Parkland mayor, said \u201cthe public is demanding\u201d property tax relief.<\/p>\n

And state Sen. Mack Bernard, a Palm Beach County Democrat who served as county mayor and as Delray Beach commissioner, has also introduced a range of proposed constitutional amendments to reduce property taxes.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs property tax bills arrive for families around Florida, living in our state feels more expensive than ever,\u201d Bernard said in a written statement. \u201cVoters should have a chance to decide on what the best financial relief is for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BrowardBroward state representatives, from left, Hillary Cassel, Mitch Rosenwald and Michael Gottlieb, at a meeting of the county Legislative Delegation on Sept. 29, 2025. (Anthony Man\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
\nAffordability<\/p>\n

The high cost of living in Florida \u2014 including housing, utilities, insurance and taxes \u2014 have many Floridians stressed.<\/p>\n

A poll released last month by the University of North Florida\u2019s Public Opinion Research Lab found 14% of Florida voters said housing costs were the most important problem facing the state today, statistically tied with the 12% who cited property insurance costs and 11% who cited property taxes.<\/p>\n

\u201cConcerns over housing and all of its associated costs, namely property taxes and insurance, have really come to the forefront over the past few years,\u201d UNF political scientist Michael Binder said in a statement. \u201cAnd that\u2019s across party lines. It seems like one thing Florida voters can all agree on is that the rent \u2014 or mortgage \u2014 is too damn high.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats emphasize insurance costs as the big culprit, arguing Republicans who control state government haven\u2019t done enough to help ratepayers.<\/p>\n

Republicans, led by DeSantis, have been emphasizing property taxes.<\/p>\n

House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell told reporters in recent days that the proposals are \u201ca distraction from the fact that Republican politicians cannot or will not fix the property insurance crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

But state Rep. Hillary Cassel, a Broward Republican, said property taxes can and should be trimmed. \u201cI think there\u2019s better balance. I think we\u2019ve seen that there\u2019s been excessive spending, and I think we\u2019ve seen that we can provide relief for residents in their pocketbook.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"StateState Reps. Chip LaMarca and Hillary Cassel, at the Broward Legislative Delegation meeting in Hollywood on Oct. 27, 2025, are the only Republican members of the Florida Legislature from Broward. (Anthony Man\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
\nVoters<\/p>\n

The kind of major changes under discussion in Tallahassee would require amending the Florida Constitution, which requires voter approval.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are hurting so bad right now,\u201d Sharief said, that anything on the ballot would likely pass.<\/p>\n

Her assessment was supported by a September poll conducted for the James Madison Institute, a conservative think tank based in Tallahassee.<\/p>\n

The poll said 65% of Florida voters said they would support a constitutional amendment \u201cto significantly reduce or eliminate property taxes.\u201d Just 15% of those surveyed would oppose such an amendment and 20% weren\u2019t sure.<\/p>\n

A constitutional amendment requires 60% to pass.<\/p>\n

\"StateState Sen. Rosalind Osgood, seated, prepares for a meeting of the Broward Legislative Delegation on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025, at the county Governmental Center. State Rep. Robin Bartleman, gesturing, speaks with Broward Mayor Beam Furr as Furr’s legislative director Clay Miller looks at his phone. (Anthony Man\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
\nImpact<\/p>\n

As much as people want to pay less, many local government leaders say that without property tax money or some alternative source of funding they won\u2019t have the money to pay for what people want and need.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a direct tangible benefit that is derived from property taxes evidenced by the time you leave your front door,\u201d Adam Reichbach, assistant city manager in Hollywood and president of the Broward County City Managers\u2019 Association, recently told lawmakers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis includes the conditions of our roadways that we drive on,\u00a0the sidewalks that we walk on, the parks that we play at, and the safety and security we feel by the presence of our police and firefighters,\u201d Reichbach said.<\/p>\n

Property taxes go to local governments\u2019 general fund budgets. It\u2019s those general funds that pay for police, parks and many other programs and services.<\/p>\n

In Broward\u2019s 31 cities, Reichbach said 48% of general fund money comes from property tax revenue.<\/p>\n

And, he said, the \u201clargest and most expensive element\u201d is police and fire services. More than half of municipal general fund budgets in Broward goes to public safety, including police, fire-rescue, beach lifeguards in coastal cities, school resource officers and crossing guards.<\/p>\n

Denise Horland, a member of the Plantation City Council and president of the Broward League of Cities, said her city brought in about $78 million in property taxes in 2025 and spent $70 million on public safety.<\/p>\n

LaMarca and Cassel said their party\u2019s proposals would prevent reductions to public safety spending. \u201cWe\u2019re staying away from the ability to remove funds from public safety because that is a top priority for the state,\u201d Cassel said.<\/p>\n

But Broward County Commissioner Steve Geller, a former Florida Senate Democratic leader, said law enforcement and other public safety spending is such a big share of general fund budgets that it would be impossible to protect them.<\/p>\n

He said property tax reductions of the kind that are being talked about effectively amount to defunding the police, which he opposes.<\/p>\n

The value of owner-occupied residential property (called \u201chomesteaded\u201d) makes up 36% of the taxable value of property in the state, according to a state Department of Revenue analysis.<\/p>\n

Eliminating all property taxes on homesteaded property could reduce Palm Beach County government\u2019s revenue by $600 million, Alessandro Marchesani, the county\u2019s legislative affairs director, recently told county commissioners.<\/p>\n

Broward County Administrator Monica Ce\u200bpero told county commissioners and local legislators recently that a preliminary estimate put the lost revenue to county government from one of the House proposals at $100 million. \u201cThat\u2019s the least impactful one so far,\u201d Cepero said. \u201cSo it\u2019s going to be very painful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bartleman and Geller said the state doesn\u2019t have the kind of money it would take to make up for the lost revenue from property taxes.<\/p>\n

An example of what that could entail: State Sen. Don Gaetz, a Republican former Florida Senate president, said at the most recent Finance and Tax Committee hearing that the panel\u2019s professional staff estimated that replacing all the property tax money that\u2019s currently raised would require the state sales tax to increase from 6% to 8.8%.<\/p>\n

(Voters in some places, including Broward and Palm Beach counties, have previously approved a 1% local sales tax, which brings\u00a0 the total current rate to 7%.)<\/p>\n

Increasing the sales tax or shifting the property tax to other owners would be unfair, said state Sen. Rosalind Osgood, a Broward Democrat and former School Board member. Increasing other property taxes could end up increasing rents, she said.<\/p>\n

\"BrowardBroward County Commissioner Mark Bogen and state Rep. Christine Hunschofsky talk after the County Commission met with the Broward Legislative Delegation at the county Governmental Center in Fort Lauderdale on Oct. 21, 2025. (Anthony Man\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
\nNext steps<\/p>\n

Beyond broad declarations of intent to do something, just what may happen is unclear.<\/p>\n

One factor is discord among Republicans, with the governor labeling the proposals put forth by the House of Representatives as \u201call milquetoast. There\u2019s not one proposal that people would get excited about, not one. So they\u2019re total half measures, which is not what people are asking for. People want to be bold.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeSantis said he plans to propose his own plan, at some point. Even though he\u2019s been talking about dramatic tax cuts for most of 2025, he said late last month there\u2019s no urgency to unveil details.<\/p>\n

Staff writer Abigail Hasebroock contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

Political writer Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Momentum for drastically reducing property taxes in Florida is seemingly unstoppable. So city, town, village and county officials…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[506,28,29,249,251,250,686,114,266,5741,5742,115,5074,99,109],"class_list":["post-38766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-broward-county","tag-florida","tag-florida-news","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-hollywood","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-national-news","tag-national-politics","tag-news","tag-plantation","tag-politics","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38766","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=38766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}