PUTNAM COUNTY, Fla. — Governor Ron DeSantis wants to set aside $300 million in the state budget to help backfill revenues that stand to be lost by Florida’s 29 fiscally constrained counties, should his plan to eliminate property taxes pass.
Five of those counties are here in Northeast Florida, including Putnam County.
For Putnam resident Terry Geck, he agrees with some property tax relief, especially for seniors.
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But he said he doesn’t think it’s fair to ask taxpayers in other counties to foot the bill for communities they don’t live in.
“What they pay on their taxes should be used in their economics, their county, not ours,” said Geck.
Putnam County Commission Chair Leota Wilkinson says she appreciates the Governor keeping fiscally constrained counties in mind.
Without state help, she said, counties like Putnam would be put in an impossible situation.
Eliminating property tax on all homesteaded properties would lose the county $15 million overnight, or about eight percent of its total budget.
But Wilkinson said she’s worried about what could happen in the long term.
“What do you do on the years beyond that? Is that going to be reoccurring? If it’s not reoccurring, then do we start cutting services?” said Wilkinson. “I can’t charge somebody to walk into the library system. I mean, how’s that going to go? I’ve literally seen people in this county go to the library so that they can have air conditioning.”
Cragin Mosteller with the Florida Association of Counties said it’s hard to say whether $300 million would be enough to cover losses in all of the state’s fiscally constrained counties.
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“It’s really an acknowledgment that this proposal would gut almost half of Florida’s counties and their ability to have services,” said Mosteller.
But she questioned the logic of giving the legislature authority over local funding.
“Do you think that the residents of Baker County want to have to go to Tallahassee every single year and trust that a Miami-Dade county commissioner or a Broward county commissioner is really going to understand the needs of Baker County?” said Mosteller.
The Governor has still not released his full plan to eliminate homesteaded property taxes, but has said it will be coming soon.
The Florida House is mulling several different options.
Whatever moves forward will need voter approval next November to cross the finish line.
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