While Florida’s top GOP leaders now all say they expect to put just one constitutional amendment on the ballot this fall on cutting property taxes, a joint resolution approved by a House committee Thursday is now set to go to the full House — the second such joint resolution to pass all of its assigned committees in the chamber this session.
The House Ways and Means Committee approved on a party-line vote a resolution (HJR 203) that would gradually increase the homestead exemption for non-school-related property taxes by $100,000 each year for 10 years.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Monique Miller, R-Palm Bay, said last week that one of the attractions of her proposal is that it wouldn’t inflict an immediate shock to local governments when it comes to a reduction in revenues, because it will be spread out for up to 10 years before fully taking affect. But she also boasted that it would provide tax relief to homesteaded property owners much sooner than that.
“Given that the median home price is about $350,000, most Floridians will have zero non-school ad valorem property taxes by 2030,” Miller told the State House Affairs Committee last week.
That prompted Rep. Robin Bartleman, D-Weston, to essentially repeat that prediction, saying that with the median home price in Florida between $300,000 and $400,000, more than 300 cities in the state will not be able to collect any property taxes after just three years.
“The fact that you’re putting it on the ballot that it’s 10 years when in reality by like year four or five by just doing the math they will all be phased out,” she said. “Is that fair to do to the voters, because 10 years is a reasonable glide path but, in reality, that glide path is shortened because of the home values.”
Miller acknowledged that some cities could be “phased out” of collecting any property taxes after just three years.
Local government officials fire backThe public comment period of the meeting featured local government officials who traveled to Tallahassee to say that the idea of severely reducing or eliminating property taxes would be hugely detrimental to their residents.
George Kruse, a Republican commissioner from Manatee County, argued it is untrue to say all citizens want lower taxes. Manatee voters, he said, have consistently approved tax increases on the ballot in recent years for the school district, fire districts, and environmental needs.
“They just want smart use of tax and it’s up to us to determine how best to do that, and if we don’t that, every two years they get to vote half of us out, every four years they get to vote all of us out,” Kruse said.
Another elected Republican, Pasco County Commissioner Jack Mariano, said that none of the proposed constitutional amendments filed by House Republicans regarding property taxes makes sense.
“We’ve looked at every one of them and they’re all disastrous for us,” he said.
According to a spreadsheet Mariano shared with the Phoenix, Pasco County would take an immediate 21% revenue loss in the first year after the amendment (if approved) would go into effect, increasing to as much as 45% by the fifth year of the 10-year phaseout.
Mariano referred to how Pasco voters have approved a “Penny for Pasco” one-cent sales tax on three different occasions, because it has helped fund parks, libraries, bike trails, and other amenities the community wants.
Nicole Wilson, a commissioner from Orange County, noted the resolution prohibits curbing the budgets for police and fire fighters, but does nothing about preserving funding for infrastructure. “Emergency response — not just the firefighters, paramedics, and law enforcement or 911 — need to be there when they call for help, but they need to be able to get there, and that’s infrastructure,” she said.
Miller’s resolution is the second property tax proposal that has passed all of its assigned committees in the House. A resolution (HJR 209) sponsored by Rep. Demi Busatta, R-Coral Gables, would create an exemption from non-school property taxes for $200,000 of a homestead property’s assessed value as long as the property is insured. It has already been added to the House calendar for consideration by the full chamber.
However, whether the resolution ultimately goes to the voters as a constitutional amendment is unknown at this time. Neither Busatta’s nor Miller’s resolutions have companions in the Florida Senate. A joint resolution must be approved by three-fifths of both chambers to qualify for the November ballot.
And House Speaker Daniel Perez recently joined with Gov. Ron DeSantis and Senate President Ben Albritton in saying it probably would better that only one such tax-related constitutional amendment go before the voters later this year. It would require 60% voter approval to become law.
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