Leaders of Pinellas County\u2019s barrier island communities joined a growing chorus of opposition to a state proposal to eliminate property taxes in 2026, calling the plan catastrophic for local government.<\/p>\n
At the Dec. 3 Barrier Island Governmental Council meeting, Belleair Bluffs Mayor Chris Arbutine, Commissioner Suzy Sofer and City Administrator Debra Sullivan urged fellow municipal leaders to educate residents about the proposal\u2019s ramifications. Their message received universal support.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the biggest assault of preemption anyone has ever seen in the state of Florida,\u201d Belleair Beach Mayor Dave Gattis said.<\/p>\n
Preemption occurs when a higher authority of law displaces the law of a lower authority during a conflict, according to the Legal Information Institute.<\/p>\n
Gattis said the move to eliminate property taxes \u2014 which would appear on the 2026 ballot \u2014 represents \u201canother step to take us all to be one generic community, and I am 100 percent against it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said residents were \u201cshocked\u201d when he explained how removing property tax revenue would affect small towns with little commercial property like Belleair Beach.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were in shock to learn that all the certain things that made them decide to live where they live could all go away,\u201d Gattis said. \u201cI personally think this is the worst thing they could ever ask of a municipal government.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clearwater Mayor Bruce Rector agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to have an impact on the services you expect,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re very fortunate to have beautiful communities and great neighborhoods in Pinellas County, and I think it\u2019s up to us to explain to our residents how the elimination of property taxes would be catastrophic for their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Determined to make residents aware of the ramifications of the elimination of state property taxes, Belleair Bluffs Commissioner Suzy Sofer, Mayor Chris Arbutine and City Administrator Debra Sullivan attended the latest Barrier Island Governmental Council meeting on Dec. 3, where their message received universal approval from their fellow local legislators.<\/p>\n
Concerns raised with lieutenant governor<\/p>\n
The Belleair Bluffs officials first raised concerns with Florida Lt. Gov. Jay Collins after a November luncheon at Belleair Country Club.<\/p>\n
During the Nov. 17 commission meeting, Sofer and Arbutine shared concerns they expressed to Collins: that eliminating property taxes would severely hamper local governments\u2019 ability to provide services residents expect, including fire protection, public safety and education, as well as amenities like holiday events and street signage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe lieutenant governor was very attentive to listening to me being very upset about the property tax elimination,\u201d Sofer said, adding she wanted to meet with him \u201cso he can explain to me how smaller municipalities will be able to recover the money from property taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Should any proposal to eliminate or reduce property taxes pass in November 2026, the state plans to provide funding for municipal needs. But Arbutine argued that would make Florida\u2019s more than 400 cities and towns \u201cwards of the state.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA vote to eliminate ad valorem is a vote to defund your city, and that vote will make you a ward of the state,\u201d Arbutine said.<\/p>\n
Arbutine, in his 25th year as mayor and considered the longest-tenured mayor in the state, told the Barrier Island group he was initially skeptical of the proposal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first heard about the elimination of ad valorem taxes, I said they can\u2019t be thinking of doing that,\u201d he said. \u201cBut then I attended an event with the lieutenant governor, and he was talking about getting rid of property taxes, and what struck me is there\u2019s no answer. There\u2019s no solution.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arbutine said Collins assured them the state has \u201cextra money at the state level that we\u2019ll give to you guys as you need it. But how is that going to work? It\u2019s hard to believe they can afford that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sofer questioned how the state would support 400 municipalities given impending budget deficits.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, how are we going to find the money when from 2026 to 2027 we\u2019re going to have a surplus of $3.8 billion, but in 2027-28, we go into a deficit of $1.5 billion, and after that we go into a bigger deficit of $1.6 billion because of all the projects in the state?\u201d Sofer said. \u201cWhere is the money from property taxes going to come from if we\u2019re already heading into a deficit?\u201d<\/p>\n
Sofer, a longtime Belleair Bluffs business owner who has served on the commission more than 16 years, called on fellow lawmakers to work together.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would love for us to band together and really get in the ears of the legislators and make them realize what a bad idea this entire plan is,\u201d she said. \u201cThey don\u2019t have a plan, and it\u2019s a great way to go into debt.\u201d<\/p>\n
A \u2018big storm coming\u2019<\/p>\n
Gattis said he will continue spreading the word despite negative feedback.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy biggest concern is we\u2019re going to lose control of our communities,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd even more concerning is that citizens are not aware of what they\u2019re about to give up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked how realistic the elimination of property taxes is, Gattis replied: \u201cWe\u2019re talking about Gov. DeSantis. Whenever he says he\u2019s going to do something, he\u2019s going to do it.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I believe something is going to be on the ballot. I\u2019m continuing to speak to my community, and I\u2019m going to rely on social media and the press because this story needs to be perpetuated over and over. This is the big storm coming.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sofer said she was pleased the Barrier Island Governmental Council leaders invited them and agreed with their position.<\/p>\n
\u201cI appreciated the invitation to speak in front of the BIG-C and was grateful for the supporting responses from the other BIG-C mayors,\u201d she said via text Dec. 7. \u201cThey seem to share why the removal of property taxes is so concerning for the smaller cities, and they foresee the huge problems of having Tallahassee making all the local decisions for our cities and towns.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leaders of Pinellas County\u2019s barrier island communities joined a growing chorus of opposition to a state proposal to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[22439,29246,43594,596,8191,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-77622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-ballot","tag-belleair-bluffs","tag-dave-gattis","tag-pinellas-county","tag-property-tax","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77622","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=77622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}