JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — We’re getting our first look at how eight proposals looking to lower property taxes filed in the Florida House could save you money and cost local governments.
All eight House property tax proposals prohibit public safety budgets from being reduced and don’t impact school property tax collections.
State Representative Sam Garrison (R-Fleming Island) told Action News Jax that for House lawmakers, those two protections are critical.
“Protecting those core services of government and then simultaneously looking at what can we do to reduce property tax burden off Floridians,” said Garrison.
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New data from the Florida Association of Counties breaks down the impacts of each proposal.
The most sweeping one, which fully eliminates all non-school property tax, would save the average Florida homeowner $378 a year on their tax bill, but also cost Florida’s local governments a combined $9 billion in the first year alone.
Locally, the impact varies.
With an annual savings of more than $1,100, St. Johns County homeowners stand to save the most. Most other local counties track around the state average.
But the cost is huge.
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Duval County alone stands to lose more than $400 million in the first year, which is nearly a quarter of its entire annual budget.
“For most counties, law enforcement takes up 60 percent. 50 to 60 percent of the budget. Okay, so take away now you’ve lost 25 percent,” said Cragin Mosteller with the Florida Association of Counties. ”It gives you 15 percent of your money to pay for clean water, emergency management response, fire service, first responders.”
Mosteller noted the association is opposing all eight proposals, as that lost revenue would have to be made up somehow.
“Any big changes are going to result in a tax shift,” said Mosteller.
Sales tax increases have been commonly floated as an option, but it’s an option State Representative Angie Nixon (D-Jacksonville) argued would put the burden on those with the least.
“The people who have to buy things just to survive. And those are working families as well as low-income people, many of which don’t even have a home to live in, like as far as they don’t own a home right now,” said Nixon.
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The least wide-reaching proposal, which allows married couples to combine their homestead exemptions, would save homeowners an average of just $3 a year and cost local governments a combined $63 million.
Despite the lower hit to county budgets, Mosteller argued even the scaled-back proposals fail in that they take a one-size-fits-all approach, which will have varying impacts across the state.
“I think it’s more just about, is this good policy? Are you just creating bigger winners and losers within a system that already has so many imbalances? What we would like to see is a real thoughtful conversation about expenditures, about revenues, about how many governments we have and does everybody need to do everything?” said Mosteller. ”We really need to have a really in-depth conversation and that’s not glamorous. That doesn’t make headlines and so, that’s just not happening.”
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