Local officials say an effort by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature to cut property taxes could be a knockout punch amid efforts by the state to erode home rule, strip power away from local governments and shift crucial community decisions up to Tallahassee.
First, in 2023, the state passed legislation limiting the ability of cities and counties to regulate new development in the wake of hurricanes.
Also that year, Florida lawmakers passed the Live Local Act, sidelining local officials from voting on massive real estate projects in their own backyards.
Then last year, state leaders took aim at local government budgets in areas like Manatee County by auditing their books to target spending that did not fit into the governor’s agenda.
Now, by advancing a plan to slash property taxes on main residences, the state would strip away the primary funding source for local governments — forcing them to compete for earmarks in the state capital — and end decades of local decision-making on issues ranging from parks to new jails.
Suncoast Searchlight spoke with eight mayors, county commissioners, and policy experts across Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties; nearly all said the showdown over property taxes is the clearest example yet of the state asserting power over local governments. They worry the ramifications will be devastating for years to come.
“In my 36 years of public service, I’ve never seen the erosion of home rule like I’ve seen over the past several years,” Sarasota County Commissioner Tom Knight said. “There’s less governance from Tallahassee and more dictation.”
After Florida lawmakers passed the property tax plan during a special session last week, elected officials across the Suncoast are sounding the alarm that the rushed proposal risks upending the budgets of counties and cities that rely on property taxes to fund day-to-day operations.
The proposed amendment would dramatically reduce the amount of property value subject to non-school taxes through a series of changes, increasing the homestead exemption from $50,000 to $150,000 starting Jan. 1, 2027 and then to $250,000 starting in 2028. The overhaul would restrict how local property taxes can be spent and make it harder for local governments to replace the lost revenue.
Voters will now decide the fate of the tax cuts in the November midterm elections. The ballot measure will require a 60% majority vote to advance.
DeSantis and state lawmakers who approved the referendum point to years of bloated spending at the local level — money they insist should return to the pockets of taxpayers facing rising costs of living.
Every legislator present for the vote and representing the three counties voted in favor of the sweeping reform, even though some acknowledged it could mean cuts to local services. They argued that even if they do not personally support the idea, Floridians should have the option at the ballot box to weigh the proposal themselves.
“Do I think it’s perfect? Probably not,” said Rep. Danny Nix, R-Port Charlotte, who doesn’t believe the move was a power grab. “I cast the vote the community asked me to cast. It is their voice to be heard.”
The proposal pits state lawmakers against local officials in nearly 500 communities across Florida, including towns like Longboat Key, where Mayor Debra Williams signed an emailed letter to six area state legislators opposing the proposal one day before it was approved.
“What has been proposed will cripple or bankrupt a number of cities and counties across the state without thinking as to how critical services (including public safety) will be provided,” the letter said.
Mary Adkins, a historian and professor emeritus at University of Florida’s Levin College of Law, said that if the property tax amendment is approved by voters, it would result in the state’s largest power shift since the Florida Constitution was rewritten in 1968.
Some policy experts even predict struggling and rural municipalities will be forced to unincorporate.
“I sure can’t think of anything that even comes close,” Adkins said. “They’re always messing with homestead exemptions, chipping away, but the scope of this is gigantic and the effect of the power shift is gigantic.”
Florida chips away at the power of local governments
For more than half a century, Florida structured government so that most local issues — from roads and zoning to libraries — were decided by officials elected by those who live there.
If a county commissioner or city mayor votes in a way their constituents don’t like, local residents can take action at the polls — knowing exactly who to hold accountable.
The 1968 Florida constitutional rewrite guaranteed local governments the authority to set their own policies unless they ran afoul of state law. This is known as “home rule,” which empowers cities and counties to create their own procedures on hot-button issues like development.
The property tax overhaul is not the first time home rule in Florida has come under attack.
The Florida Association of Counties sounded the alarm on the erosion of home rule in a 2018 legislative report, back when U.S. Sen. Rick Scott was the state’s governor.
At the time, bills were introduced that would have preempted local governments from any permitting and most regulations that were not explicitly authorized by the state, according to the report.
Since then, the state has grabbed more control.
Senate Bill 180 stipulates that local governments cannot advance “burdensome or restrictive” limits on proposed real estate developments following a major storm or hurricane, which are common throughout Florida.
Although the measure passed with an intent to rebuild homes and infrastructure destroyed by storms, it also restricts local governments from writing regulations that are more restrictive to development.
Then came the Live Local Act. Like SB 180, critics say Live Local circumvents home rule by allowing developers to bypass local zoning regulations if they include some affordable housing. Sarasota County is attempting to block developers from using the law to build apartment buildings in rural areas, which could set the stage for a legal battle with the state. But even that effort has drawn lawsuits brought by developers.
Last year, Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia went on a barnstorming tour of the state to accuse local governments of alleged wasteful spending, piggybacking off of President Donald Trump's cuts to the federal government.
Manatee County was singled out by Ingoglia, who said its budget was $112 million higher than what the state deemed appropriate.
Officials warn of cuts to services
Local elected officials throughout the region who spoke to Suncoast Searchlight warned the property tax proposal would mean dire cuts to government services, forcing them to increase other taxes to make up the difference or gut funding for public safety, infrastructure, parks and roads.
An analysis by the Florida Association of Counties found Manatee County would lose about $230.6 million over the next two years if voters approve the tax cuts. Sarasota County would lose about $140 million.
Bracing for the shortfalls, Manatee County announced a hiring freeze in January. The county is also pausing projects for Mixon Farms, the Cortez boat ramp and the Longboat Key community center, said Manatee County Commission Chairman Tal Siddique.
“I think we’re taking a proactive approach,” he said.
Longboat Key Mayor Debra Williams said that the town’s finance department has not yet worked up any definitive numbers, though she noted the town is in better financial shape than many others because of its high property values.
The bulk of the city’s property tax revenue goes toward public safety, she said. So far, the public buzz about the amendment has been favorable, which worries her.
“The people I have spoken to, educated and intelligent people, the response from a lot of these people, they’re listening to the DeSantis line,” Williams said. “They said yes, we think there’s a lot of waste in government, (but) it is very appealing for people to say, ‘Yay, I don’t have to pay property taxes.’”
In an email to Suncoast Searchlight, Sarasota Mayor Debbie Trice also said the city has not had enough time to fully investigate the budgetary impacts. She worries if the city were forced to increase its tax rates, costs would shift to commercial property owners, which would be passed on to their customers and renters.
“This is a significant portion of the city’s population, and includes many lower income families,” Trice said. “They will not benefit from this legislation.”
The measure also says that local governments cannot raise the assessed value of non-homestead property by more than 5% annually.
Trice remains worried.
“I am concerned what will happen to our quality of life if this legislation forces us to reduce the quality of services that we provide,” she said.
Legislators say their support for a referendum does not mean they support the proposal
Every state legislator from the Suncoast who voted on the amendment, all of them Republican, voted to put the measure in front of Florida voters in November.
But not all of them are convinced the tax cut is such a great idea.
Rep. Bill Conerly, R-Lakewood Ranch, said in an interview with Suncoast Searchlight that just because he voted to put the measure in the hands of Florida voters does not mean he personally would vote for it in November.
“I’m still going to do my own due diligence and have conversations with local governments,” Conerly said. “Now we have language for an accurate analysis.”
Legislators made two major changes from DeSantis’s original plan, protecting property taxes dedicated to schools and nixing a state trust fund to make up for anticipated revenue losses to local governments.
Conerly said the measure was a “better product, in the end.” He also said the state needed to make affordability a top priority amid stubborn inflation of common goods and ballooning housing costs.
Other legislators who backed the measure included Senate President Ben Albritton of Wauchula, whose district includes DeSoto County, and Senate Majority Leader Jim Boyd, whose district covers parts of Manatee and Hillsborough counties.
State Representatives James Buchanan, R-North Port; Fiona McFarland, R-Sarasota; Vanessa Oliver, R-Punta Gorda; Michael Owen, R-Apollo Beach; and William Robinson, R-Bradenton, all favored the amendment.
State Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, who also serves as chairman of the Republican National Committee, did not vote.
Albritton said he was ”grateful to Gov. DeSantis for leading the conversation on cutting property taxes and putting forward this robust proposal for the consideration of Florida voters this fall.”
If counties and cities can no longer fund themselves, many routine spending decisions would shift to Tallahassee, and face scrutiny from legislators who live on the other end of the state and are not familiar with a community’s needs. That then muddies the water over who voters can even blame if things go wrong, said Jeff Brandes, a former Republican state senator from Pinellas County who now leads the Florida Policy Project, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank based in St. Petersburg.
Brandes, who wrote a scathing column about the proposal for the Florida Trident, told Suncoast Searchlight that the legislation amounts to a power grab by the state at the expense of services for taxpayers.
“For the last 100 years in Florida, the contract between the state and counties has been that the county money collected locally supports the local decisions made by local officials,” Brandes said. “We are fundamentally rewriting a contract now.”
He compared the change in local funding to a parent allocating an allowance to their child.
“The No. 1 statement that you’ll see in two years coming out of the legislature is: This is not what I intended.”
This story was produced by Suncoast Searchlight, a nonprofit newsroom of the Community News Collaborative serving Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties. Learn more at suncoastsearchlight.org. Suncoast Searchlight reporter Derek Gilliam contributed to this story. Christian Casale is a local government/politics reporter for Suncoast Searchlight. Email him at christian@suncoastsearchlight.org John Dunbar is a watchdog/investigative reporter for Suncoast Searchlight. Email him at john@suncoastsearchlight.org
