\n\t\t\t\t\t\tA new proposal backed by the governor could mean major changes for Cape Coral homeowners \u2014 and for the city\u2019s budget.The idea: reduce or even eliminate property taxes statewide. But while that may sound like a dream for homeowners, it could cost Cape Coral tens of millions of dollars each year.City leaders say they\u2019re now examining what options they have if that money disappears.Cape Coral currently collects about $62 million annually in property tax revenue \u2014 money that funds essential city services, including public safety, parks, and infrastructure.If the governor\u2019s plan moves forward, the city could lose nearly 40% of its total revenue.Ted Stout with Real Mark Realty said eliminating property taxes could go either way for real estate. “It would be a boom for real estate,” Stout said. “It could be a negative where our tourist tax and everything so high, nobody wants to come here.” If property taxes disappear, Cape Coral officials may need to consider other ways to make up for lost revenue.Possible options include adding a local sales tax, implementing a fire service fee, and raising other local tax rates.”We’re paying taxes and a lot of people can’t afford it,” said Tara Boccia, Cape Coral resident. “A lot of people are just having a hard time, and they’re leaving Cape Coral.”The City of Cape Coral said the following:”At this stage, it\u2019s too early to know whether the Legislature or Governor will propose any form of revenue replacement, although it has been mentioned in some discussions. If any of these proposals are approved by voters than we will thoroughly evaluate the impact.”For now, nothing is final, and city leaders say they will monitor these proposals as they progress through the legislature.DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tCAPE CORAL, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
A new proposal backed by the governor could mean major changes for Cape Coral homeowners \u2014 and for the city\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n
The idea: reduce or even eliminate property taxes statewide. But while that may sound like a dream for homeowners, it could cost Cape Coral tens of millions of dollars each year.<\/p>\n
City leaders say they\u2019re now examining what options they have if that money disappears.<\/p>\n
Cape Coral currently collects about $62 million annually in property tax revenue \u2014 money that funds essential city services, including public safety, parks, and infrastructure.<\/p>\n
If the governor\u2019s plan moves forward, the city could lose nearly 40% of its total revenue.<\/p>\n
Ted Stout with Real Mark Realty said eliminating property taxes could go either way for real estate. <\/p>\n
“It would be a boom for real estate,” Stout said. “It could be a negative where our tourist tax and everything so high, nobody wants to come here.” <\/p>\n
If property taxes disappear, Cape Coral officials may need to consider other ways to make up for lost revenue.<\/p>\n
Possible options include adding a local sales tax, implementing a fire service fee, and raising other local tax rates.<\/p>\n
“We’re paying taxes and a lot of people can’t afford it,” said Tara Boccia, Cape Coral resident. “A lot of people are just having a hard time, and they’re leaving Cape Coral.”<\/p>\n
The City of Cape Coral said the following:<\/p>\n
“At this stage, it\u2019s too early to know whether the Legislature or Governor will propose any form of revenue replacement, although it has been mentioned in some discussions. If any of these proposals are approved by voters than we will thoroughly evaluate the impact.”<\/p>\n
For now, nothing is final, and city leaders say they will monitor these proposals as they progress through the legislature.<\/p>\n
DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app<\/a>\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app<\/a> to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new proposal backed by the governor could mean major changes for Cape Coral homeowners \u2014 and for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,29549,210,187,104,6281,213,1736,2159,21331,992,29551,26109,480,11799,29550,221],"class_list":["post-44729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-impact","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-city","tag-entertainment","tag-governor","tag-late-news","tag-lot","tag-money","tag-new-proposal","tag-people","tag-property-tax-cut-proposal","tag-property-taxis","tag-real-estate","tag-revenue","tag-ted-stout","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44729","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=44729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}