A new study by the Florida League of Cities warns that eliminating or slashing property taxes would hit rural communities hardest, as many already operate with little fiscal margin while relying heavily on property taxes to fund essential services.

As lawmakers weigh proposals to eliminate or sharply expand Florida’s homestead exemption, the League’s analysis finds the fiscal fallout would be uneven, placing far greater strain on rural and inland municipalities with limited revenue diversity.

In smaller cities, most of them rural, predictable ad valorem revenue is the backbone of municipal budgets, supporting police and fire protection, infrastructure maintenance, and local economic development.

“Without compensatory measures, reforms risk eroding long-term service capacity and weakening rural revitalization strategies,” the report says.

The pressure is particularly acute in rural regions such as the Panhandle, where some small jurisdictions devote all of their property tax revenue — and more from other sources — to police, fire and emergency medical services.

With narrow tax bases and limited alternatives, those communities must tap other general fund sources simply to keep essential services operating.

Infrastructure costs compound the challenge. A microsimulation conducted for the League found that public works and transportation spending is especially vulnerable in rural and coastal communities with large land areas and infrastructure-intensive responsibilities.

In many of those jurisdictions, the scale and environmental complexity of roads, drainage systems and stormwater management drive costs that are fundamentally mismatched with local taxable value.

“As policymakers consider reforms to the homestead exemption or property tax system,” the report says, “these geographic disparities underscore the need to account for infrastructure-driven fiscal stress, which cannot be easily reduced through efficiency gains or service cuts.”

The study estimates that eliminating homestead property taxes outright would result in a 38% loss of ad valorem revenue and a 14% drop in overall general fund revenue statewide, forcing millage rates to nearly double to avoid service cuts.

Large fixed-dollar exemptions of $250,000 to $500,000 would still produce revenue losses of 25% to 32%, requiring millage increases of 20% to 70% on remaining taxable properties to break even.

Researchers at Wichita State University used a microsimulation model to estimate how various homestead property tax reform proposals would affect municipal revenues across Florida.

After establishing a baseline of each city’s fiscal structure from 2018-2024, they applied reforms — including complete elimination, tiered exemptions and a 32% discount — to parcel-level values under just, assessed and taxable valuation bases.

They then calculated the resulting revenue losses and the millage rate increases needed to keep budgets whole before then breaking the results down by region, population size, housing values and income to show which communities would be most impacted.

The study comes months after DeSantis vetoed a $1 million earmark in Florida’s budget that would have funded a study on the potential impacts of eliminating property taxes. A Florida Policy Institute study released in February found that Florida would need to double its sales tax to 12% to offset the local revenue losses that ending homestead taxes would cause.

The American Council of Engineering Companies of Florida (ACEC Florida) is awarding more than a dozen engineering firms responsible for Florida public projects for their work.

The projects being honored range from complex road interchanges to environmental projects. The Engineering Excellence Awards will be presented at the ACEC Florida banquet set for Feb. 13 at the Hyatt Regency in Orlando.

Of the 14 engineering companies that will be honored for their Florida work, seven firms will snag top honors known as “grand awards.” Out of those, one will be named the Florida “Grand Concepter Award” winner. All of those top seven recipients will be eligible for the national Grand Conceptor title.

“Florida’s professional engineering community are among the finest in the country, and we’re proud to recognize their extraordinary contributions and innovations,” said Richard Acree, President of ACEC Florida. “The business of engineering is delivering through design build projects that are enhancing the lives of Floridians.”

The Grand Award winners include:

— Black & Veatch for Water Resources category and an H2.0 Purification Center for JEA.

— DRMP, Inc. for Transportation category and the Wekiva Parkway Section 8 Interchange Design-Build for Florida Department of Transportation.

— Hanson Professional Services Inc. for Transportation category for the Bartow Executive Airport Digital ATC Tower for the Bartow Executive Airport Development Authority.

— Kisinger Campo & Associates, Corp. in the Studies, Research and Consulting category for the SR 429 Widening & Systemwide Flex Lanes for the Central Florida Expressway Authority.

— Taylor Engineering, Inc. for the Studies, Research and Consulting category and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection Statewide Vulnerability Assessment.

— TLP Engineering Consultants, in the Transportation Category for the State Road 417 Widening from I-Drive to John Young Parkway for the Central Florida Expressway Authority.

— WGI, in the Transportation category for the Jacksonville Transportation Authority Bay Street Innovation.

The companies named for Honor winners include:

— CHA Consulting, Inc.

— EAC Consulting, Inc.

— Hanson Professional Services Inc.

— Jacobs.

— PRIME AE Group, Inc.

— Wade Trim.

— WGI, Inc.

U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody slammed Harvard University for hiring a student accused of assaulting pro-Israel peers during campus protests.

The Plant City Republican criticized the university after the New York Post reported that Elom Tettey-Tamaklo had been hired as a graduate teaching Fellow. According to the academic’s LinkedIn, he took on that role in August, months after he faced misdemeanor charges of assaulting an Israeli classmate.

“Leaders must step up to not only condemn antisemitism but show action to faithfully combat this evil. Unfortunately, many profess to want to quash this abhorrent behavior but then make decisions and promote others that bolster antisemitism with a wink and a nod,” Moody posted on social media.

Especially discouraging to Moody, she said, was that she had spoken to Harvard’s leadership specifically about the need to drive out antisemitism from its campus culture.

“Earlier this year, I sat down with Harvard President Alan Garber. During our meeting, I expressed my deep frustration with Harvard’s inaction regarding students who violated the civil rights of, and even assaulted, their peers simply because of their religion. It’s a reason I introduced the RECLAIM Act to send a message that these schools must be held accountable. I also pointed out that the university continues to reward those that support an anti-Israel agenda,” she posted.

“With this latest hire, it appears Harvard remains on an indefensible path. This is another example of why a once-great university is becoming at best a national embarrassment and at worst purposefully promoting harmful ideals. Harvard should refocus its mission on again becoming a university that students aspire to attend for academic excellence and not a utopia for woke radicals.”

The Recouping Educational Contributions Linked to Antisemitic Institutional Misconduct (RECLAIM) Act (S 1069) would allow the government to claw back federal grants to institutions of higher education if it is found they have violated students’ civil rights. The bill in March was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Tettey-Tamaklo was charged with assault and battery in 2023, according to the Post, after video went viral of him and other protesters surrounding an Israeli student and shouting “shame.” The incident occurred amid campus protests nationwide of the Israeli conflict in Gaza following Hamas terror attacks that year. The Post said he was ordered to complete anger management courses and complete community service, but that the case was ultimately dismissed in November 2024.

Tettey-Tamaklo was a student at Harvard Divinity School at the time and one of the organizers of Graduate Students 4 Palestine, according to The Harvard Crimson. He has discussed his involvement in student activism on social media, including after a speech to the Muslim Public Affairs Council Foundation in Los Angeles.

“I shared some reflections on the importance of student activism and the need to keep Palestine at the forefront of our minds,” he wrote on LinkedIn two weeks ago.

When others shared the Post story about his hire on his page, Tetty-Tamaklo shared news reports noting that a Judge dismissed antidiscrimination lawsuits from Harvard grad students who claimed they faced pervasive antisemitism at the school.

“While the court does not condone an assault on a fellow student by campus protestors, nothing in the Amended Complaint plausibly supports the notion that his assailants’ conduct was motivated by race-based antisemitism,” the Judge wrote in a ruling, as reported by the Crimson.