House-passed proposal to eliminate homestead taxes would undercut public safety in 116 cities, lawmaker says

This week, Republicans pushed to pass legislation in the House that would place a question on the November ballot asking voters to phase out homestead property taxes over 10 years, beginning in January 2027.

The measure includes language prohibiting local governments from reducing police, fire rescue and other first responder-related levies below current levels. It would also exempt School District taxes.

That all sounds attractive on paper, Weston Democratic Rep. Robin Bartleman said, but it’ll be a disaster in practice, as many cities in Florida stand to lose 50% or more of their budgets through the proposed change (HJR 203).

Bartleman filed an amendment, which her GOP peers rejected, that would have required the state to backfill deficits in public safety and school funding cities and counties encounter due to the changes HJR 203 contemplates.

It wasn’t just grandstanding, she said. A recent simulation using 2024 data from the Florida Department of Financial Services, the Office of Economic and Demographic Research and municipal property tax data from the Florida Department of Revenue found that 116 municipalities — including relatively big cities like Tampa, St. Petersburg, Fort Lauderdale, Pembroke Pines and Hollywood — would not generate enough general revenue to cover their 2024 public safety expenditures under a full homestead exemption.

That would remain true even if those cities eliminated all other spending: They still would not have sufficient revenue to fully fund first-responder services at current levels.

Smaller cities wouldn’t be immune from the impact. Southwest Ranches in Broward, which has fewer than 8,000 residents, would lose about 60.5% of its budget under the proposed changes, according to a separate analysis by county Property Appraiser Marty Kiar.

The majority of the town’s budget is allocated to a contracted service with Miami-Dade County for fire services, leaving little revenue for other city functions like infrastructure upkeep, garbage pickup and other vital amenities.

Nearby Cooper City and Sea Ranch Lakes would be hit even worse, losing 62% and 68% of their tax revenues, respectively. Parkland, meanwhile, would lose more than 75%.

Ahead of Thursday’s House floor vote on HB 203, Palm Bay Republican Rep. Monique Miller, the bill’s sponsor, pushed back against arguments from her Democratic peers that ending property taxes would make it virtually impossible for many localities to continue providing basic services and public safety protections at current levels.

Cities, she said, will “be having some big, difficult conversations.”

“Some of those smaller cities or boutique law enforcement divisions,” she said, meaning municipal police forces, may have to “go and work through the Sheriff’s Office” rather than continue their current operations.

That was a tell, Bartleman said, that the idea Miller and her GOP colleagues are trying to sell voters about police and fire rescue services not being affected by the cuts just doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.

“The whole point you’re selling to the public is that there’s going to be no change in their public safety,” she said. “Yet on the floor, you yourself acknowledged that some things would have to change.”

Bartleman also took exception with what she describes as a lack of transparency about the legislation’s impact, noting the absence of an implementation bill that would more fully detail what HJR 203 would do.

They’re also not being forthcoming about what local governments are likely to do to make up for the lost funds, from raising sales taxes that would impose a higher percentage burden on low-income residents to imposing new fees, which may all but wipe out any savings HJR 203 or several other House property tax-killing proposals promise.

“It’s not fair to do that to the public, to ask them to vote for something without having all the information,” Bartleman said.

“They keep saying, ‘Let the public decide.’ But you’re not giving the public the information they need to make an informed decision. It’s like a sleight of hand: Vote for this now because it feels good. After all, you think you’re going to get this windfall. But a year later, you’re going to find out what the real consequences are of your decision.”

The 116 municipalities projected to not generate enough revenue to cover public safety spending under a full homestead exemption include Apopka, Astatula, Atlantic Beach, Atlantis, Baldwin, Bay Harbor Islands, Belle Isle, Belleview, Boca Raton, Bowling Green, Boynton Beach, Briny Breezes, Callaway, Chattahoochee, Clermont, Clewiston, Cocoa, Coconut Creek, Cooper City, Coral Springs, Crestview, Cutler Bay, Davie, Daytona Beach, Deerfield Beach, DeFuniak Springs, DeLand, Delray Beach, Edgewater, Edgewood, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Fort Walton Beach, Graceville, Green Cove Springs, Greenacres, Gulf Breeze, Gulfport, Highland Beach, Hillsboro Beach, Hollywood, Indialantic, Inglis, Jasper, Jennings, Jupiter Inlet Colony, Key West, Kissimmee, La Crosse, Lake Clarke Shores, Lake Helen, Lake Mary, Lake Wales, Lake Worth Beach, Lakeland, Lantana, Largo, Lauderhill, Leesburg, Lighthouse Point, Longwood, Lynn Haven, Madison, Malone, Marathon, Margate, Marianna, Mascotte, Miami Shores, Milton, Niceville, Noma, North Port, Oakland Park, Ocala, Ocoee, Okeechobee, Orange Park, Oviedo, Palatka, Palm Beach Gardens, Palmetto Bay, Parkland, Pembroke Pines, Pensacola, Perry, Pinecrest, Port Orange, Sarasota, Satellite Beach, Sea Ranch Lakes, Sebastian, Sebring, Seminole, Sewall’s Point, Southwest Ranches, Springfield, St. Cloud, St. Leo, St. Petersburg, Starke, Stuart, Sunrise, Tampa, Tarpon Springs, Temple Terrace, Tequesta, Valparaiso, Venice, Wauchula, West Park, Weston, Williston, Windermere, Winter Garden and Winter Park.