As sure as God made little green apples, I ain’t voting on Nov. 3 for the Florida constitutional amendment that promises property tax reductions for homeowners. I’m not dumb enough to sign up for an ill-conceived, utterly preposterous pig-in-a-poke piece of political theater just so Gov. Ron DeSantis can add “reduced property taxes” to his bloated anti-home-rule resume.
But, of course, you do you.
Before you check that “yes” box, tuck this in your brain: One Trauma Star helicopter ride to Miami because you’ve had a medical emergency could land you with a bill for upwards of $23,000. That’s the current going rate. The county transports about 1,400 patients a year and averages three to four flights a day.
Monroe County residents never see a bill. What your insurance doesn’t pick up, the county “forgives” because those medevac flights are included in your property taxes. Don’t act all outraged if you thumbs-up the amendment and the county bean counters decide to ditch the “free” in favor of “fee.” Anyone who lives in the Keys and Key West knows the deplorable state of highly specialized emergency medical treatment. It’s off to Miami we go.
I don’t have that kind of cash lying around and neither does Trauma Star, so if we nix property taxes AND we want to keep the free lift to Miami, the county’s going to have to find the money somewhere.
The amendment requires municipalities to fund “core services,” which include police and fire protection, emergency medical services, education, infrastructure like roads and bridge construction, stormwater and flood control, debt service on existing local bonds and retirement benefits for local government employees — but it doesn’t require that those services be fully funded.
What’s not considered as core are many of the governmental services taxpayers take for granted. It’s likely that municipalities will have to either severely curtail or eliminate funds for:
- Health and Human Services: Healthcare, hospitals, Medicaid payments, veterans’ services and family/community/senior centers.
- Recreation and Community: Parks, libraries and children’s services.
- Public Works & Utilities: Garbage collection, utilities and general housing/urban development.
- Special Districts: Mosquito control districts, independent fire districts and water management districts.
- General Operations: General government operations, maintenance and municipal court services.
Property tax amendment: DeSantis needs reality check
“They’re going to say, ‘If you do this we can’t have services,” DeSantis said. “We’re guaranteeing that the money has to go to local services. Not all of your property taxes go to essential services… and they could do the same services at a lower cost.”
Perhaps the governor needs a reality check: Municipalities already spend most of their property tax revenue on those core services.
Almost 45 percent of Monroe County’s revenue comes from property taxes. Of that, the county says 91 percent funds public safety operations and constitutional officers. Public safety services alone account for roughly 69 percent of the levy, supporting the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, Fire Rescue, Trauma Star, Emergency Management, detention operations and emergency communications. Constitutional offices (Clerk of Court, Supervisor of Elections, Sheriff, Property Appraiser and Tax Collector) account for another 22 percent.
In Key West, property taxes account for about 30 percent of the city’s revenue. The balance is made up of sales taxes of various kinds, fees like building permits and grants — with a whopping assist from parking fees and tickets. As with the county, most of our Key West property taxes pay for law enforcement, emergency services and firefighters.
If House Joint Resolution 1, aka “Save Our Homes from Excessive Property Taxes,” gets 60 percent approval in November, the actual cash the county and city collects plummets — but the costs don’t disappear. To balance their budgets, which they are constitutionally required to do, the county and the city have but two choices: Cut employees and services or find cash.
DeSantis and his lackey legislators have been telling us for years that municipalities are bloated, inefficient and ineffective. That the state is far better at running local government, so ditching grants to nonprofits and redlining “woke” cultural events will save taxpayers a bundle. Hence things like last year’s FLDOGE. We still have seen nothing substantive from the draconian reviews that promised millions in local savings once FLDOGE uncovered all the waste and fraud.
Why? Because municipalities already spend almost all their money on public safety, emergency services, infrastructure, schools, environmental challenges and core operations. There’s darn little left over for discretionary funding like, say, Keys Health and Housing, formerly known as AH Monroe, or the three dozen other nonprofit service providers that saw their county and city funding evaporate last year.
So since FLDOGE didn’t find much in the way of waste and fraud, let’s try mucking with property taxes. Everyone hates ’em, so the Tallahassee political thinking goes, and we can persuade folks to devastate the services provided by local government by promising them a few extra dollars in property tax reductions.
And a few dollars it is. Ranger Ed and I pay about $4,000 annually. About $1,000 goes to Key West. The county gets about $1,300. The Mosquito Control District gets $202; Water Management gets $112. The schools get the most, at $1,525. DeSantis and the legislature originally wanted to kill school district property taxes, too, but they backed off after a firestorm raged across the state.
It’s just a rough estimate, but likely in the ballpark: If the amendment passes, the ranger’s and my property taxes could drop by half — so what we do pay will go to the schools. How the heck will the county and the city pay for everything else? The state’s not going to bail them out. DeSantis, who will be termed out of office when the chaos hits, halfheartedly floated a detail-deprived plan for a state “trust fund” to help offset the deficits, but that went nowhere because not even his ardent flunkies could figure out how it would work.
The only people who like this amendment are in the Florida Statehouse. Former Republican state Sen. Jeff Brandes isn’t buying it: “Florida is about to perform open-heart surgery on its tax system amid a housing market already under stress. That should make everyone a little nervous.” Brandes has been a vocal opponent of the amendment, calling it “government by permission slip.”
Both he and Jeff Kottkamp — a former lieutenant governor and legislator who now leads Florida TaxWatch — warn the amendment would turn municipalities into beggars at the Statehouse, virtually eliminating local control of how government spends money.
This week the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board joined the anti-amendment choir saying it’s a “shame” DeSantis is “using his final months in office to push a poorly designed measure on the November ballot that would put his state on the slippery slope of a progressive property tax regime.” The editorial said the redistribution of the burden is guaranteed, since “shrinking the tax base in this way will inevitably drive localities to shift the burden to other forms of property.”
This amendment is pure hogwash. It plays well in anti-home-rule political circles and guarantees the destruction of local government services at the grassroots. You might pay less property tax, but the fees, the special sales taxes, the special taxing districts, the off-tax-roll assessments? Those are gonna bust the bank. Meanwhile, my annual wind and flood insurance bills make my property taxes look like budget dust.
Learn more
https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article316089440.html
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2026F/1F/Analyses/h0001a.SAC.PDF
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2026F/1F/BillText/er/PDF
Property tax reduction or elimination will help florida retired residents who live on social security. Don’t rob them this opportunity. Counties waste of expenses can be eliminated and controlled budgets submitted.
Have you ever seen a Profit and Loss statement from the County you are living in?
Have you noticed County or City of investment in expensive monuments happens fairly fast next to public property repair work that takes forever?
Have you seen public repair work where you don’t see many workers on weekdays, and then on weekends you see them working (collecting overtime).
Regardless of the tax relief bill passing or not, there doesn’t seem to be much of clarity in the administration of funds in the public sector., and the rate of inflation is not as high as the rate of increase of property value and number of properties being built in many cities.
Some food for thought.