Politics
Momentum builds for Colorado-style taxpayer bill of rights
A second statewide official is joining the call.
CFO Blaise Ingoglia is the latest state official looking to put guardrails against expanding local governments in the Florida Constitution.
The model would be Colorado’s “taxpayer bill of rights.”
Ingoglia said he would push for an amendment that “says that no government can take in and expend more than what population and inflation will dictate, and if they do, they actually have to give them money back to the taxpayers.”
“That’s how you keep things affordable here in the state of Florida,” Ingoglia said Thursday in St. Cloud.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has said that language could materialize as soon as November’s “implementation session” if the state passes the homestead property tax exemption.
Colorado’s measure, passed by constitutional amendment in 1992, subjects some tax increases to a referendum.
It also limits spending and revenue increases to the rate of population growth.
If that rate is exceeded, taxpayers get refunds.
Refund checks are often modest, with the range from $20 to $62 in the most recent wave of givebacks from calendar year 2024.
But for Ingoglia, who has traveled the state to spotlight increases of recent years in local spending amid robust tax collection, a modest refund beats higher tax bills for property owners.
