As the day after Florida’s historic midterm elections dawned, local elected officials across the state are reckoning with what voters’ approval of a sweeping property tax cut will mean for their communities.
For the mayor of tiny Bowling Green, where only about 20 houses are expected to remain on the homestead property tax rolls after Amendment 3’s supercharged tax exemption goes into effect, it was a sleepless night.
“I’m still in shock,” said Mayor Sam Fite, acknowledging that the decisions he makes now could determine his town’s survival.
Nestled in the rolling farmlands of rural Hardee County, the city of 2,400 people is expected to lose about a third of its property tax revenue – and with it, Fite worries, much of its local control over funding decisions.
Rumblings have already started among residents about shutting down the city’s seven-officer police force, Fite said. The argument from backers of Amendment 3 that emergency services won’t suffer as a result of the tax cuts is “a falsehood,” he added.
Larger urban communities with wealthy tax bases and bustling tourism industries are not immune. In St. Petersburg, City Council member Richie Floyd took to social media to mourn what he fears will be his new job responsibility of “overseeing mass austerity.”
“Things are about to be cut that I never imagined would. Ambulances, the juvenile welfare board, water management districts,” Floyd said. “I’m sick.”
A clear statewide majority
A resounding 62% of Florida voters approved Amendment 3 during Tuesday’s midterm elections, according to preliminary results, putting in motion the sweeping constitutional amendment that will significantly reduce property taxes on Floridians’ primary homes – and effectively eliminate non-school property taxes in some of the state’s most impoverished communities, which have vanishingly few ways to recoup the revenue.
The measure raises the homestead exemption on non-school property taxes to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028. More than 100 cities across the state would see at least 90% of their homesteaded taxable value taken off the tax rolls, because so many of their properties are assessed at less than $250,000, according to an analysis by the Florida League of Cities. Economists estimate the amendment would cut local property tax revenue by $4.9 billion in its first year, growing to $11.8 billion by 2031.
It’s a proposal that was championed by term-limited Gov. Ron DeSantis and rushed through the Legislature in a lightning-fast special session – over the objections of local leaders and first-responders from communities large and small, who fear the measure will hamstring their ability to provide the basic services that their residents rely on, from policing and emergency medical services to road maintenance and public parks.
Some residents fear the measure could lead to the collapse of local control in Florida, as communities become increasingly subject to the political whims of Tallahassee to secure funding for their basic needs – or even force the dissolution of their local governments altogether.
“It’s going to put us more dependent on Tallahassee,” Fite said. “And I don’t want to go begging them to buy a garbage can.”
“If you need to buy a new $70,000 patrol car, do you need to go ask their permission if you can buy it?” he asked.
Even after powerful state lawmakers who voted to put the proposal on the ballot decided to ultimately vote against it at the polls, the measure won a majority in 64 of the state’s 67 counties and cleared the high bar of 60% statewide support needed to pass, during a historic wave election in which voters fed up with the high cost of living and the state of the country under President Donald Trump wiped out once-unshakable Republican strongholds from Texas to South Carolina to Kansas.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday morning, DeSantis argued that one of the reasons Florida has remained a solitary bastion of conservative control following what he described as a near “extinction-level event” for Republicans in other parts of the country is because Floridians turned out at the polls to vote for the tax relief that Amendment 3 promised.
“The truth is, and this is something that I pushed for over many months and even over the last year, had Amendment 3 not been on the ballot, I don’t know that we turn out the voters that we ended up turning out,” DeSantis said.
Special session to come
DeSantis has pledged to call a special legislative session before the end of the year for lawmakers to come up with a plan to implement the amendment ahead of the Jan. 1, 2027, effective date.
An open question is whether and how much lawmakers may set aside to “backfill” local governments to make up for the staggering loss of revenue. Speaking to reporters Wednesday, DeSantis dismissed concerns about a lack of funding for law enforcement in rural areas.
“It’s budget dust to help them with their sheriff’s departments,” DeSantis said. “I mean, you’re talking about tens of millions of dollars in grants would be able to handle the quote ‘shortfall.’ So we’ll be able to do that.”
But as a lame-duck governor who terms out in January, DeSantis’ influence will be limited. The long-term implementation of the measure and whether the state will continue to fund local services for the state’s 67 counties and more than 400 municipalities is a political question that may ultimately be decided by future governors and lawmakers.
Former Republican state Sen. Jeff Brandes, one of the most prominent conservative critics of the measure, is calling on his former colleagues to come up with a standard of what defines a “minimum viable city,” to set up a transition fund to help counties pick up the services that cities will be forced to cut, and to give residents the final vote on whether to merge or dissolve their local governments.
While countless cuts may come down from the local level, the ultimate responsibility lies with Tallahassee, Brandes said in a statement on social media.
“The governor and the Legislature own what comes next,” Brandes wrote. “They have the responsibility to manage the fallout.”
