With a constitutional amendment for massive property tax cuts on the November ballot, Central Florida officials are looking for ways to inform voters about how it could affect local budgets and to do so without running afoul of rules against outright advocacy.
City and county commissioners and policy experts are worried that Florida voters don’t fully understand the ramifications of backing the tax cuts, which would create multi-million-dollar budget shortfalls that would require service cuts or fee increases to balance out.
Orlando commissioners in a workshop on Monday morning said the city should have a role in changing that, especially as Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida CFO Blaise Ingoglia allege widespread waste in local government budgets.
“I think people need to understand the kinds of things that are going to get cut as part of this,” Orlando Commissioner Patty Sheehan said. “This is a potential loss if they vote for this. And … we're not wasting their money.”
Orange County commissioners professed that same sentiment last week.
Education, not advocacy
A statement from the city said that “state law limits how local governments participate in ballot measures, but providing factual information consistent with state statute about the City's budget is an important part of transparency and voter education.”
The statement noted that Orlando is already expecting to explain and answer the public’s questions about the budget.
The annual budget reports that cities and counties present could be a good model for information that serves the public interest, said Orlando Commissioner Shan Rose.
“We know what comes from legal and communications … when we do budget: … ‘Here's your dollar and how it's broken down,’” she said. “But then if we take that dollar and go a little bit further. That way we’re all educating city of Orlando residents against the misinformation that's going to start.”
Rose is asking city staff to draft language about the proposed amendment’s impacts that won’t break the state laws.
The proposal
In a special session last week, state lawmakers passed a set of proposed tax changes that will need approval from voters later this year. By far the most significant among them is an increase to the state’s homestead property tax exemption.
Homesteads — that is, properties that serve as the primary residence for the property owner — make up a large portion of housing stock in Florida, though the category excludes rental units, businesses and secondary homes.
Under the proposal, at the start of 2027, homestead owners would be able to claim a $150,000 exemption on their home value before property taxes are calculated, an exemption that would grow to $250,000 next July.
If the constitutional amendment is adopted, a $350,000 home with the higher exemption would be taxed as though it were worth $100,000.
In a moment when cost of living is persistently high, that would offer relief to people who already own property, though not to renters or people who can’t afford to own a home.
Budget chaos
It would also cause havoc for municipal budgets. Property taxes are the backbone of local government, offering a stable source of revenue that can help finance schools, first responders and infrastructure projects that take decades to pay off.
Across the state, governments have said that, if the tax cuts become law, they will need to plug multi-million-dollar budget holes, by scaling back essential services and considering hiking fees and increasing other tax rates to cushion the shock.
In Orange County, that deficit would be more than a quarter of a billion dollars. Other Central Florida governments, like Volusia County and the town of Oakland, could lose a similar — or larger — percentage of their budget.
In a statement on Monday, the city of Orlando declined to estimate how big a hit the amendment would be for its budget. It took $360 million in property taxes last year.
The proposed constitutional amendment on property taxes will be on the ballot in November and will need 60% of the vote to become law.
