A.G. Gancarski
On Monday and along party lines, Senators in the Appropriations Committee debated and amended a proposal to increase the homestead property tax exemption to $250,000 by 2028, pending voter approval on the November ballot.
The panel, which has 14 Republicans among its 19 members, moved the bill forward. But time will tell whether the Senate approves it with the requisite 60% support, as some yes votes could be no votes Tuesday unless changes are made to the proposal.
Senate Joint Resolution 2-F, sponsored by Bryan Avila and championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, would up the break on homeowners’ primary properties to $150,000 next year and $250,000 in 2028.
Avila said the SJR would let voters access “historic property tax relief” by increasing homestead exemptions and decreasing revenue increases on other ad valorem taxes from 10% to 5% per year, while allowing cities and counties to increase the exemption starting in 2030, including for new homesteaders not grandfathered in by being in the state before 2027.
The measure saw three key changes during Monday’s hearing, suggesting that unlike the Congressional reapportionment maps approved last month, legislators aren’t completely comfortable with the DeSantis proposal even as they are considering it.
Avila introduced an amendment allowing for constitutional officers, courts, special districts, and county commissions to be funded as if they are core services.
“This is the Governor’s proposal,” Avila said, deeming the amendment a way to make sure such funding didn’t “slip through the cracks.”
He also said the amendment would protect hospital money via Low Income Pool Funding for hospitals that need support, as that is a “core function” and “permissible” under law.
Pressed on what was not permissible, Avila again said the amendment was meant to capture “core functions,” and that something like his home county of Miami-Dade’s discretionary accounts and security services for commissioners would exemplify a non-permissible function.
An Erin Grall amendment that would remove the language around the trust fund from the ballot summary, “an empty bank account” which the east-central Florida Republican said “put the expectation forth that there would be a trust fund when there isn’t in fact a dedicated funding source for the trust fund,” also met committee muster.
“There isn’t actually a bank account that is going to have any money in it,” Grall said.
Republican Jay Trumbull’s proposal to remove ad valorem taxes collected by school boards from the constitutional amendment also garnered committee approval, and praise during public comment by a representative of the Small School District Council Consortium who had concerns about the larger impacts of the proposal.
Other amendments, including a Carlos G. Smith “kill switch” proposal for a sunset clause after the end of 2031 and a Lori Berman change of the title to “Property Tax and Local Community Service Reductions,” failed.
Avila attempted to assure his colleagues that he’d get some clarity on points of confusion from the executive branch.
‘This is the Governor’s proposal. I can assure you that I will be reaching out to the Governor’s Office and to the Governor directly to see how this can be 100% in the best possible posture before you vote on it,” he promised.
But questions likely will remain even from Republicans when the full Senate votes on the bill, if the committee hearing is any indication.
Ileana Garcia, a Republican from Miami-Dade like sponsor Avila, sought “clarity” on the full ramifications of the amendment, particularly for seniors and vulnerable populations, and given that many property owners in the county wouldn’t immediately benefit from the homestead exemption being lifted.
Avila said the county’s “large commercial and non-homestead base” would insulate it from the toughest impacts of this proposal.
Questions in the committee also revealed ways counties could raise money.
Republican Gayle Harrell was concerned with “bedroom communities” and wondered if the proposal allowed for increased or new fees to backfill lost property tax revenue. Avila said the current language of the bill permitted special assessments and “any sort of fees.”
Harrell also wondered how state money would be doled out based on need in a “fair” way that didn’t depend on “what party you’re in” or “who you know.”
Avila said the process might be “rocky” at first but could get “efficient” after local governments “streamline” their budgets and “really assess what they do” and “identify if this is a need or this is a want.”
Debate revealed similar skepticism, albeit fruitless in the end.
NPA Sen. Jason Pizzo called the legislation a “redistribution of wealth” that would be especially punitive on smaller counties where housing appraisals low.
“Unless you have friends in high places, they’re screwed,” was how Pizzo summed up potential impacts of the legislation.
Democrat Tina Polsky accused DeSantis of “political expediency” that could lead legislators toward “malfeasance.”
Republican Tom Wright said the “bill needs a lot of work,” deeming the proposal a “kick in the rear end.”
“There are so many issues with this bill that scare the bejeebers out of me,” he said, noting overwhelming opposition from his district because the legislation is “too rushed, too fast, and too quick.”
He urged “a lot of amendments to improve this,” saying in its current condition the bill would be hard for him to back on the floor.
“I will not go home and let this stay the way it is right now,” Wright vowed.
Gayle Harrell expressed “very deep concerns about what we’re doing to our cities and counties,” and hoped the ballot language would be amended to help people understand what they’re voting for, with cities and counties appealing to state government for funding.
“I don’t know where I will be tomorrow,” she warned.
In his close, Avila did not say he’d embrace further changes.
SB 4-F, which would have appropriated $5.5 million to the department to pay supervisors of elections back for informing voters about the measure should it make the ballot, saw drastic changes.
A Grall amendment removing the requirement that property appraisers mail every taxpayer a new separate notice, the requirement that the Department of Revenue build a public website with a calculator estimating each homeowner’s potential’s tax savings, and the $5,500,000 general revenue appropriation that would have reimbursed counties for printing and mailing that insert as the amendment.
Grall said that her amendment was motivated by a statute passed in 2024 that governed transparency in messaging, and that she didn’t want to “segment policy” in the case of this amendment.
“The Governor’s Office would like to see us handle it differently and I like the work product we had two years ago,” she said.
Sen. Jon Martin was a voice of opposition, leading Grall to address him directly in her close, saying she was sorry he thought she was trying to keep information from voters.
Grall’s amendment aligned the bill with the House, which scuttled that money during Monday’s committee hearing.
Democratic Leader Lori Berman’s amendment, which would have required the Governor’s promotional “save our homes” website to be supplemented by information from local governments about how the constitutional change would cut services alongside the purported savings from the homestead exemption hike, was almost adopted on a voice vote.
However, a roll call vote reversed the decision.
The website came up again in discussion when Berman noted the bill directed the Department of Revenue to build the Governor’s website after the bill was passed by the Legislature.
As he had multiple times Monday, Avila again said he was simply carrying “the Governor’s proposal.”
