TALLAHASSEE, Fla. \u2014\u00a0The Florida House advanced a series of proposals designed to cut non-school property taxes through their first committees Thursday, a move that could change how local governments fund services and manage local finances.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
The Florida House advanced a slate of proposals designed to slash property taxes in the state
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The\u00a0 bills offer different approaches to the slash
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The Senate has yet to offer any proposals or endorsements<\/p>\n
The proposals include a measure to eliminate the taxes immediately, and another to phase them out over 10 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is about returning money to hard-working Floridians,\u201d said Coral Gables Republican Rep. Demi Busatta Cabrera.<\/p>\n
Another proposal would eliminate non-school property taxes exclusively for homeowners 65 and older.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a targeted approach to help those who need it the most,\u201d said Miami Republican Rep. Juan Porras. \u201cOur most vulnerable communities, those who have built the cities and counties, the areas that we all represent.\u201d<\/p>\n
The proposals include a police mandate, requiring local governments to leave law enforcement budgets untouched.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did not support defunding the police in 2020, and I am not going to support it today,\u201d said Coconut Creek Democratic Rep. Christine Hunschofsky.<\/p>\n
If passed, any constitutional amendment would go to voters in 2026 and require at least 60% approval.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should not be afraid to let the voters of this state, the same voters who elected each and every one of us, make the decisions for themselves, for their communities and for the state,\u201d said Stuart Republican Rep. Toby Overdorf.<\/p>\n
Democratic lawmakers on Thursday voiced concern over the effort to slash property taxes, which are the primary revenue source for local governments. The Florida Policy Institute estimates $43 billion would be needed to maintain current services if the House proposals are enacted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should not be putting our local governments in a situation where we’re taking away tools, only to have them shift that burden in some other way. That is actually going to have the most adverse impacts on the people who need our help the most,\u201d said House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell, a Tampa lawmaker.<\/p>\n
The Senate has not filed any companion legislation, leaving the House to move forward alone.<\/p>\n
Gov. Ron DeSantis has criticized the idea of putting multiple tax proposals on the 2026 ballot, calling it a poor approach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. \u2014\u00a0The Florida House advanced a series of proposals designed to cut non-school property taxes through their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[3140,6074,28,2203,115,139,99,232,234,233,135,835],"class_list":["post-54916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-capital-connection","tag-florida","tag-jason-delgado","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-politics","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news","tag-tampa","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54916","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=54916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}