The Florida State Capitol has established the House Selection Committee on Property Tax. The plan is to give voters plenty of time to hear both sides throughout the summer, allowing ideas to take shape before the next legislative meeting.
Some of them may include taking steps to a 2026 state vote that could eliminate local property taxes in the state.
Other floating items require cities and counties to vote on whether to eliminate Homestead property taxes and whether to introduce new or Homestead exemptions.
During these meetings, GOP lawmakers will find supporters and opponents on the issue of property tax.
Supporters: Homeowners who have not taken a break due to the high costs of property value and property insurance premiums.
Opposition: It names several Florida Urban Federations, local Urban Governments, Florida County Federations, School Board Associations, Fire and Police Unions.
Expect these meetings to give opponents of property tax reductions or elimination the excuse that “critical services such as schools, fire departments, police, roads, parks and more will be funded.”
Is it a move that gives property owners the reality of bailout, or is it just rhetoric?
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A recent Op-Ed (https://reasolablearguments.substack.com/p/realistic-proposals-to-reform-or?r = wb8xb&utm_medium=ios&triedredirect=true) is now offered by former Florida Rep. Matt Caldwell as part of the area as a part of the area, now an outdoor resident on the property site of Lee County. Local Services Tax.
The first one is more than just shaving your budget pen. The single biggest item in most Florida property tax bills is the required local efforts (RLE), with the state requiring taxes each school district collects to support K-12 operational funds. RLE accounts for around 46% of current K-12 funding, with statewide collection of $10.3 billion. Given that the state’s funding source already covers 100% of PREK and university operational funding, we begin asking why Florida is using local property taxes to fund statewide K-12 obligations.
You can imagine a step-by-step approach. This approach can reduce RLE by $1 billion each year over a decade until it is eliminated. The state’s total budget is currently $116.5 billion, so we’re talking about finding less than 1% of the state’s revenue each year to make this happen. Eliminating RLE alone will reduce most property tax bills by 30%! This is an easy target and quickly ripe for picking.
Caldwell notes that the next best target is homestead exemption.
“The original exemption was adopted in 1934 and covered the value of the property of $5,000 if the average home price was around $4,500. Today’s $50,000 exemption doesn’t even compare. $5,000 should be $120,000 just to adjust for pure inflation,” Caldwell said.
Caldwell supports the idea of moving the base homestead exemption to at least $125,000, and will then allow Congress to increase that amount to compensate for inflation, in future general laws.
“Many more ideas are being stolen, including tax exchanges and professional exemptions for the elderly, disabled and veterans. All of these ideas have benefits. But in my experience it’s easier to cut. Correct the value of the current exemption. In Florida,” says Caldwell.
