{"id":687737,"date":"2026-06-06T10:17:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T10:17:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/687737\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T10:17:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T10:17:25","slug":"proposed-florida-property-tax-break-may-shift-burden-to-second-home-owners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/687737\/","title":{"rendered":"Proposed Florida property tax break may shift burden to second-home owners"},"content":{"rendered":"

Proposed Florida property tax break may shift burden to second-home owners<\/p>\n

\"Dave<\/a>NORTH FORT MYERS, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\n

Florida voters are considering a property tax cut that could increase taxes for non-homestead properties, which make up 53% of homes statewide and do not qualify for a tax break. <\/p>\n

In Lee County, there are 300,000 properties without a homestead exemption<\/a>, and part-time owners in 55+ communities like Lake Arrowhead and Laurel Estates could face significant tax increases if the measure passes. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn this case, it might be 30 to 40% higher costs,\u201d said Matt Caldwell, Lee County property appraiser. \u201cThey\u2019re going to pass that through.\u201d <\/p>\n

Anne Calascibetta, a homeowner in North Fort Myers, said she chose her community because of its reasonable taxes. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if I would stay here if they doubled my taxes,\u201d Calascibetta said. <\/p>\n

She added that eliminating taxes could influence her decision to make her Florida home her primary residence. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf they did eliminate taxes here, I definitely would make this my homestead. As it is now, I want to stay here longer than I do in Michigan,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Karen Montgomery, a ReMax realtor, said about half of the homeowners in Lake Arrowhead have second or third homes. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor those who live here permanently, of course, they\u2019re all rejoicing about the tax cuts,\u201d Montgomery said. \u201cBut for those who have those second homes, if they can only homestead one home, of course, they\u2019re looking at possible increases on their homes and taxes.\u201d <\/p>\n

Montgomery also noted that eliminating property taxes is attracting interest from people planning for retirement. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m already seeing people call and say we\u2019re not ready to retire yet, but we are planning ahead, and we may be able to use it as a vacation home until we retire,\u201d Montgomery said. \u201cWith prices down and the possibility of taxes going away, they are already interested.\u201d <\/p>\n

The decision now lies with voters like Terry Bernier, who said eliminating taxes would provide him with more financial flexibility. <\/p>\n

\u201cI will say no taxes because it will give me a little extra money to do something else. Maybe take a cruise. I\u2019ve never been on one,\u201d Bernier said. <\/p>\n

If the tax cut passes, anyone who buys a home after Dec. 31, 2026, must wait five years to receive the full $250,000 exemption.<\/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":"Proposed Florida property tax break may shift burden to second-home owners NORTH FORT MYERS, Fla. \u2014 Florida voters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[298713,298716,4,450,247199,88,298709,298715,451,2976,148573,298708,298711,16641,3,298714,298710,298712,98248,452,453],"class_list":["post-687737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-ahomestead-exemption","tag-anne-calascibetta","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-burden","tag-entertainment","tag-florida-property-tax-break","tag-florida-voter","tag-headlines","tag-home","tag-homeowner","tag-karen-montgomery","tag-lake-arrowhead","tag-late-news","tag-news","tag-non-homestead-property","tag-property-tax-cut","tag-second-home-owner","tag-taxis","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}