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FL Reduction in Property Taxes
Posted on 6/4/26 at 6:29 am
Posted on 6/4/26 at 6:29 am
The "Free for Me" crowd in FL are already panicking about the potential cuts to property taxes for homesteaders. This article is specific to St Pete area but gives you an idea of just how much "vote buying" local governments do with tax receipts.
WFLA 8 News
The highlighted ones are those programs that mostly transfer funds from producers to parasites. The others are things city government must do or why have a government at all?
ETA ... for those that don't know, St Pete is a purple municipality leaning red but does have a Democrat Mayor. Tampa is also purple leaning blue with a Democratic Mayor.
WFLA 8 News
quote:
-Community Enrichment – Operation and maintenance of city libraries, senior centers, and athletic and recreational facilities; and the mowing and maintenance of parks.
-Homeless Services – This includes city contributions to St. Vincent DePaul, Pinellas Safe Harbor and Pinellas Hope.
-Care for Seniors and the Disabled – This includes Meals on Wheels which provides thousands of meals for low-income seniors in the city.
-Arts and Culture Funding – This provides support to the Florida Orchestra, the Arts Conservatory for Teens, a variety of museums, and the individual artists.
-Youth Employment and Crime Prevention Programs – Supporting our local workforce and working to improve public safety, the city supports intervention and diversion programming like, Forward Together, CALL, and -Safe Summer, and workforce programs like the Mayor’s Future Ready ---Academy and a variety of literacy programs.
-Traffic signs, signal control, and street lighting
-Maintenance of engineering records, maps, GIS, etc.
-Planning and zoning services
-Codes inspections and compliance
-City administrative services, such as legal, procurement, HR, budget, and finance
-Community/customer services
-Historic and environmental preservation
-Intergovernmental coordination
-Management of city property
-Economic development and redevelopment coordination
-Affordable Housing – The city expects to need to reduce its affordable housing subsidies that fund the city portion of new affordable housing developments.
-Community Events – The city currently charges lower than market rates for graduation ceremonies, proms for Pinellas County High Schools, and community events like Tim Tebow Night to Shine. Those events could see a doubling or tripling of event space costs. This would also extend to facilities like parks, libraries, a variety of waterfront spaces, and parking fees.
The highlighted ones are those programs that mostly transfer funds from producers to parasites. The others are things city government must do or why have a government at all?
ETA ... for those that don't know, St Pete is a purple municipality leaning red but does have a Democrat Mayor. Tampa is also purple leaning blue with a Democratic Mayor.
This post was edited on 6/4/26 at 7:06 am
8
Posted on 6/4/26 at 6:38 am to dalefla
All of your highlighted areas are not meant to be a part of my tax dollars!!!
Posted on 6/4/26 at 6:42 am to dalefla
Long story short…how can you tax me on what I’ve already paid for and own?
Posted on 6/4/26 at 6:42 am to dalefla
Regarding the crime prevention aspect, it seems that by eliminating all the other “free” stuff, you will in turn reduce the amount of people who commit crimes
Posted on 6/4/26 at 6:46 am to BurlesonCountyAg
quote:
Regarding the crime prevention aspect, it seems that by eliminating all the other “free” stuff, you will in turn reduce the amount of people who commit crimes
Are you assuming emigration?
Posted on 6/4/26 at 6:48 am to Sid E Walker
quote:
Long story short…how can you tax me on what I’ve already paid for and own?
Property tax can be replaced with sales tax, but there has to be some revenue to pay for those things in the OP’s list that were not highlighted. I like the idea of replacing property tax with sales tax because, as you implied, one has the choice to buy something new and pay the tax.
The issue is that sales taxes are extremely unprogressive. Poor and middle class people end up paying a larger percentage of the revenue than they do under property tax regimes.
This is something democrats will eventually have to come to grips with. In the Nordic countries, they want to emulate, the rich are taxed no higher than what we do here in the States. It’s the people in the middle class who are taxed higher. Some of the top brackets in Nordic countries go into effect at incomes just 15% more than the average. In the States the top bracket goes into effect at about eight times the average income.
This post was edited on 6/4/26 at 6:52 am
Posted on 6/4/26 at 6:49 am to Sid E Walker
quote:
Long story short…how can you tax me on what I’ve already paid for and own?
California says
Posted on 6/4/26 at 6:49 am to dalefla
In Louisiana those taxes fund a bunch of jobs programs. Over saturation of police and fire services, mainly the admin piece. How much of this can be managed by the county/parish emergency preparedness teams that are federally mandated?
Posted on 6/4/26 at 6:50 am to dalefla
This would cut my property taxes in half. I'm so pumped.
Posted on 6/4/26 at 6:53 am to dafif
This is just for St Pete. Now multiply across all municipalities in FL.
And this isn't about a total elimination of property taxes. Its about increasing the homesteaders exemption for primary residences only.
According to Google...
WOW! What are local governments doing with our property taxes!
And this isn't about a total elimination of property taxes. Its about increasing the homesteaders exemption for primary residences only.
According to Google...
quote:
Approximately 47% of the 11 million total property parcels in Florida are homesteaded. This means that nearly half of all properties in the state are primary residences, while the remaining 53% consist of vacation homes, investment properties, rentals, and commercial real estate.
WOW! What are local governments doing with our property taxes!
Posted on 6/4/26 at 7:03 am to dalefla
Not seeing the law, but wouldn’t some other laws on millages kick in as reassessments or automatic roll forward rates kick in if property valuations or changes in the amount of money that comes in.
For example, in Louisiana entities can roll forward millages without voter approval as long as the same revenue that was approved is collected. For example, if millage is supposed to collect 5 million a year, but is only expected to collect 4.75 after a reassessment, bodies can vote to increase the millage to collect the 5 million with out voter approval. That is because some of the millages are tied to bonds that have fixed payment schedules and collecting less would undermine the bond payments.
For example, in Louisiana entities can roll forward millages without voter approval as long as the same revenue that was approved is collected. For example, if millage is supposed to collect 5 million a year, but is only expected to collect 4.75 after a reassessment, bodies can vote to increase the millage to collect the 5 million with out voter approval. That is because some of the millages are tied to bonds that have fixed payment schedules and collecting less would undermine the bond payments.
This post was edited on 6/4/26 at 7:48 am
Posted on 6/4/26 at 7:14 am to Tarps99
That’s an interesting take that I did not know about. I did a ChatGPT dive into this issue, and it did not come up with this angle either. 
Posted on 6/4/26 at 7:15 am to SlowFlowPro
quote:Why would he not? Parasites are like water, always seeking the path of least resistance. All the freebies enable the parasites to take root. Remove them, and many will leave.
Are you assuming emigration?
The question isn't if there will be emigration, it's how much emigration there will be and where they will go. Unfortunately, there are still countless places here in the US where they will be able to go suck the taxpayer teat.
Posted on 6/4/26 at 7:29 am to Sid E Walker
quote:
Long story short…how can you tax me on what I’ve already paid for and own?
I thought everyone paid property tax. - unless you get an exemption. I may need to check on that.
I do hope all the democrats don't turn Florida blue.
This post was edited on 6/4/26 at 7:36 am
Posted on 6/4/26 at 7:47 am to Penrod
quote:
That’s an interesting take that I did not know about. I did a ChatGPT dive into this issue, and it did not come up with this angle either.
If forgot to add but if assessments increase, the bodies have the opportunity to lower the millage without voter approval to a lower rate to collect the same amount per year, but most bodies don’t. They keep the rates the same and collect the extra revenue.
So the reality is that while Florida homeowners with homes valued at less than 250k will pay no taxes, residents would pay less on homes valued above that, but rates would have to drastically increase on the rest of the taxable assessed value of the remaining properties.
So businesses, second homeowners, apartment complexes, high value homes, and other taxable property not considered a 1st home would see drastic increases in property taxes.
Fun little fact in Louisiana, there is a vessel tax that some oilfield boat companies get assessed on their boats. The crazy thing about how the boats are taxed is that it only is collected if the boat is docked when the tax assessor does a vessel inventory at the end of the year. So some companies know this and get their boats out of Port Fourchon between Christmas and New Years. That is one reason why Port Fourchon doesn’t have a big rig repair yard.
I wonder if Florida has a yacht tax on all those billionaire yachts in Miami and the Keys.
Posted on 6/4/26 at 7:53 am to Tarps99
quote:
So businesses, second homeowners, apartment complexes, high value homes, and other taxable property not considered a 1st home would see drastic increases in property taxes.
You may be missing the biggest point in all this.
WE DON'T HAVE A REVENUE ISSUE. WE HAVE A SPENDING ISSUE.
And to further the point, it's being spent on a lot of people that have no skin in the game.
Posted on 6/4/26 at 7:56 am to dalefla
those cuts hit much deeper than that
LINK
The Florida Association of Counties has released estimates showing significant reductions in local government revenue if the proposal takes effect.
According to those estimates:
Nassau County would lose roughly $28 million.
Clay County would lose approximately $43 million.
St. Johns County would lose about $60 million.
Duval County would experience the largest reduction, losing nearly $223 million in revenue next fiscal year.
--
LINK
23 hours ago — Lee county is currently budgeting $534 million in property taxes in its general fund. That would drop to $335 million in 2028. EMS stations ...
LINK
LINK
"Losing $46 million in revenue, it's impossible to keep the same level of service that we had today," said Cape Coral Mayor John Gunter.
Critics, including Lee County Property Appraiser Matt Caldwell, warn that the measure could lead to higher taxes for those without homestead exemptions.
"They'll just look to raise the tax rate on everyone remaining, so commercial properties, non-homesteaded, rental properties, all of our big box stores and retail, fast food would all pay higher taxes," Caldwell said.
Lee County Commissioner David Mulicka highlighted concerns about the loss of funding for essential services, saying, "This bill doesn't give us any money for 20/20 land, parks, libraries, rec centers, senior and veterans care, street lighting, signs, the arts, public transportation."
LINK
The Florida Association of Counties has released estimates showing significant reductions in local government revenue if the proposal takes effect.
According to those estimates:
Nassau County would lose roughly $28 million.
Clay County would lose approximately $43 million.
St. Johns County would lose about $60 million.
Duval County would experience the largest reduction, losing nearly $223 million in revenue next fiscal year.
--
LINK
23 hours ago — Lee county is currently budgeting $534 million in property taxes in its general fund. That would drop to $335 million in 2028. EMS stations ...
LINK
LINK
"Losing $46 million in revenue, it's impossible to keep the same level of service that we had today," said Cape Coral Mayor John Gunter.
Critics, including Lee County Property Appraiser Matt Caldwell, warn that the measure could lead to higher taxes for those without homestead exemptions.
"They'll just look to raise the tax rate on everyone remaining, so commercial properties, non-homesteaded, rental properties, all of our big box stores and retail, fast food would all pay higher taxes," Caldwell said.
Lee County Commissioner David Mulicka highlighted concerns about the loss of funding for essential services, saying, "This bill doesn't give us any money for 20/20 land, parks, libraries, rec centers, senior and veterans care, street lighting, signs, the arts, public transportation."
Posted on 6/4/26 at 8:02 am to RelicBatches86
quote:
"Losing $46 million in revenue, it's impossible to keep the same level of service that we had today," said Cape Coral Mayor John Gunter.
That's the point.
Posted on 6/4/26 at 8:05 am to dalefla
This pure idiocy.
The two fastest growing states (in population and economy) are Texas and Florida. Neither of which has an income tax and both have high property taxes.
Yes, let's shift away from a tax structure and economy that has been the envy of the country.
The two fastest growing states (in population and economy) are Texas and Florida. Neither of which has an income tax and both have high property taxes.
Yes, let's shift away from a tax structure and economy that has been the envy of the country.
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