By Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix
In Summary:
The Florida House Ways and Means Committee has approved a third joint resolution aimed at limiting property tax increases on homesteaded and non-homesteaded properties. While House leaders and Gov. Ron DeSantis say they support giving voters a chance to weigh in, the Senate has yet to advance any companion legislation. Local officials continue to warn that significant limits on property tax revenues could force cuts to essential services.
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With nearly a quarter of the 60-day regular Florida legislative session on the books, a clear dilemma regarding the push to provide property tax relief for homesteaded properties is emerging in the Legislature.
Related: Florida House advances proposal to phase out homestead property taxes, drawing warnings from local governments.
On Tuesday, the House Ways and Means Committee approved a joint resolution proposing a constitutional amendment to reduce property taxes, which will now go to the full House of Representatives for a vote.
That makes three joint resolutions to date that have cleared all of their assigned committees and will now move to the chamber’s floor. However, there have been no corresponding companion measures in the Florida Senate, meaning that all these proposals could end up going nowhere by the time the session ends on March 13.
“We have another chamber that apparently doesn’t have any interest in talking about these very important subjects,” cracked Rep. Philip Griffitts, R-Panama City Beach, in his closing argument before the committee.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, House Speaker Daniel Perez, and Senate President Ben Albritton have all said that they are united in giving voters this November a chance to reduce property taxes on homesteaded properties. And all three now say it would be preferable to have just one such initiative for Floridians to vote on.
However, only the House seems intent on addressing the issue during the session. While DeSantis hasn’t said that he will call for the Legislature to meet in a special session to deal with the issue in the spring, it’s apparent that, at least to date, he’s not that interested in pushing anything right now. Nor has the Senate shown any interest in doing so — thus far, at least.
Griffitt’s joint resolution would work differently from the others that have advanced so far. It would limit annual rate increases to 3% or the change in inflation (whichever is lower) for homestead propertiesto apply every third year instead of each year. The proposed amendment would also change the assessment increase limitation for non-homestead property to 15% every third year, instead of 10%.
“This is not a cut,” Griffitts told the committee. “We keep hearing about a tax cut. This is not a tax cut; this is a cap. … It’s going to require local governments to make hard decisions. To prioritize what they want to spend on.”
As has been the case in other committee meetings, the public comment portion was dominated by locally elected officials arguing that a drastic reduction in property tax revenues would be devastating to their communities.
Local officials again show their disapproval
Woody Brown is the mayor of Largo, a city in Pinellas County with about 85,000 residents. He told the committee that property taxes bring in approximately $44 million annually, whereas the budget for police and fire is about $69 million. Since 2020, the costs to provide for public safety have outpaced the growth in property tax revenues, he said, and any “significant reduction in ad valorem revenue would result in cutting essential services that our residents expect.”
Those reduced revenues could result in reduced library hours, the closure or neglect of city parks, or the delay of roadway or sidewalk repairs, he said.
A rare Democratic amendment is added
While the proposal again passed on a strict party-line vote, with Republicans in support and Democrats in opposition, Broward County Democratic Rep. Christine Hunschofsky did have an amendment approved by the committee that would prevent an assessed tax increase in a three-year period if the just value of the property had either stayed the same or decreased.
Hunschofsky said that many constituents reached out to her to offer the proposal.
“So, their property value had decreased, for example, in their condos by like $40,000, but because there was a spread between their property value and their assessed value, their assessed value increased, so the tax they had to pay went up,” she said.
In addition to the three joint resolutions on their way to the floor, another four joint resolutions sponsored by Republican members of the House remain alive in various committees.
For a joint resolution to become a constitutional amendment, it must be approved by three-fifths of the members of both the House and Senate. Once on the statewide ballot, it must receive 60% support to become law.
Key Points:
- The House Ways and Means Committee approved a joint resolution sponsored by Rep. Philip Griffitts that would cap assessment increases every three years rather than annually.
- Three House-backed property tax resolutions have now cleared all committee stops and await floor consideration.
- No companion measures have advanced in the Senate, raising doubts about whether any proposal can clear both chambers before the March 13 session deadline.
- Local government leaders, including Woody Brown, warned that reduced property tax revenue could lead to cuts in public safety and basic services.
- A Democratic amendment by Rep. Christine Hunschofsky was adopted to prevent tax increases when a property’s market value declines.
