Floridians will have the chance to approve or reject a proposed constitutional amendment changing property taxes in Florida, Rep. Jimmy Patronis (R-FL) said during an appearance on Breitbart News Daily, explaining what the proposed changes are and what it means for Sunshine State homeowners.
Florida legislators approved a version of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R) property tax exemption plan, meaning Floridians will have the chance to approve or disapprove come November. The proposal essentially increases the homestead property exemption gradually, rising to $150,000 in the first phase and up to $250,000 in the next phase. Patronis explained that there are “multiple types of property taxes” in Florida, so this stands as just one potential solution for relief:
So you’ll have a property tax that goes to the school district that is going to fund nothing more than then K-12 vote, tech education, if it’s part of that particular school district. You have what’s called water management districts. Those are five of those in the state. They collect a property tax in order to manage the state’s water resources. Then you have the county, which it’ll be the large portion of your property tax bill. If you live in the city limits, they’ll be a property tax being collected from that municipality you live in. And then you could have a special district for firefighters, you could have a special district for mosquitoes. So it really kind of depends on where you live. There’s those out there, are critics over the property taxes, that it’s an incredibly punitive tax, because you can lose your home if you don’t pay it, but that also creates predictability for the governments, because you will pay it, because nobody wants to lose their home.
“Most notably this particular provision is carving out and holding harmless the school part of the property tax, which it’s a large part, but [it] also becomes a little bit more of a contentious one, because then you get those seniors that come here, there, or they’re empty nesters, and now you’re making me pay for a school system, but I’m putting no kids in it, so that that becomes a point of contention of,” he said, noting that DeSantis originally wanted to allow people to “own their home free and clear without having any strings attached to government entity.” The congressman said they have attempted it before, and admitted this proposal “falls a little bit short of achieving that goal.”
Explaining what this means again, Patronis said, “If your house is worth half a million dollars, ok, of assessed value, ultimately, your property tax bill for those non-education category categories could get cut as much as in half, because now instead of your house being assessed [at] half a million dollars, it’s gonna be half million dollars.”
“It’s gonna be assessed at $250,000, and then those rates are applied to the smaller assessed value,” he added, noting that some are worried that the tax burden will then fall to non-homesteaded properties, which includes rental and commercial properties.
However, Patronis emphasized that the goal was originally to eliminate the property taxes on an individual’s homestead altogether. This is merely a step in that direction.
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