PUTNAM COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 Governor Ron DeSantis wants to set aside $300 million in the state budget to help backfill revenues that stand to be lost by Florida\u2019s 29 fiscally constrained counties, should his plan to eliminate property taxes pass.<\/p>\n
Five of those counties are here in Northeast Florida, including Putnam County.<\/p>\n
For Putnam resident Terry Geck, he agrees with some property tax relief, especially for seniors.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n But he said he doesn\u2019t think it\u2019s fair to ask taxpayers in other counties to foot the bill for communities they don\u2019t live in.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat they pay on their taxes should be used in their economics, their county, not ours,\u201d said Geck.<\/p>\n Putnam County Commission Chair Leota Wilkinson says she appreciates the Governor keeping fiscally constrained counties in mind. <\/p>\n Without state help, she said, counties like Putnam would be put in an impossible situation.<\/p>\n Eliminating property tax on all homesteaded properties would lose the county $15 million overnight, or about eight percent of its total budget.<\/p>\n But Wilkinson said she\u2019s worried about what could happen in the long term.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat do you do on the years beyond that? Is that going to be reoccurring? If it\u2019s not reoccurring, then do we start cutting services?\u201d said Wilkinson. \u201cI can\u2019t charge somebody to walk into the library system. I mean, how\u2019s that going to go? I\u2019ve literally seen people in this county go to the library so that they can have air conditioning.\u201d<\/p>\n Cragin Mosteller with the Florida Association of Counties said it\u2019s hard to say whether $300 million would be enough to cover losses in all of the state\u2019s fiscally constrained counties.<\/p>\n