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Property Taxes
Throughout the summer and continuing into the fall and winter, property taxes have been, and will continue to be, at the vanguard of legislative topics for this upcoming session. Property taxes are how municipalities fund essential services such as law enforcement, emergency response, road repair, and more. Any discussion of eliminating property taxes poses a threat to the very nature in which municipalities operate and provide services to their citizens.
House Select Committee on Property Taxes
Speaker Daniel Perez created the House Select Committee on Property Taxes with the goal of delivering immensely consequential legislation regarding property taxes. Eight bills have been filed and are expected to be heard by the Select Committee. The eight bills are as follows, categorized by the mechanism in which the bills are intended to provide property tax reform:
Elimination
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HJR 201 (Steele) eliminates non-school homestead property taxes outright. If approved, homeowners would no longer pay city/county non-school levies on their primary residence. HJR 201 is estimated to have an annually recurring negative fiscal impact of $18.3 billion.
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HJR 203 (Miller) phases out non-school homestead property taxes over 10 years by adding a new $100,000 exemption each year to a homeowner’s non-school tax base. After a decade, the non-school portion on homesteads would be fully exempted. HJR 203 is estimated to have an annually recurring negative fiscal impact of $13.3 billion.
New Exemptions
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HJR 205 (Porras) exempts Florida residents over 65 from paying non-school homestead property taxes. HJR 205 is estimated to have an annually recurring negative fiscal impact of $6.7 billion.
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HJR 207 (Abbott) creates a new homestead exemption for non-school taxes equal to 25% of a home’s assessed value. HJR 207 is estimated to have an annually recurring negative fiscal impact of $4.6 billion.
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HJR 209 (Busatta) establishes a property insurance relief homestead exemption by granting an additional $100,000 non-school exemption to homestead owners who maintain property insurance. This bill’s fiscal impact has yet to be scored.
Expanded Benefits
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HJR 211 (Overdorf) eliminates the cap on “portability” of Save Our Homes (SOH) benefits, allowing homeowners to transfer their accumulated SOH differential to a new primary residence, even when the replacement home is of lesser value. HJR 211 is estimated to have an annually recurring negative fiscal impact of $337 million.
Valuation Assessments
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HJR 213 (Griffitts) slows the growth in the assessed value of non-school homestead property taxes to 3% over three years for homestead property (currently at 3% per year) and 15% over three years for non-homestead property (currently at 10% per year). This bill’s fiscal impact has yet to be scored.
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HB 215 (Albert) makes statutory changes, including requiring a two-thirds vote to increase millage rates and allowing newly married couples to merge their accumulated SOH benefits when establishing a shared household. This bill’s fiscal impact cannot be scored as there is insufficient data to predict marital rates with individuals who have pre-existing homestead property status.
The House Select Committee on Property Taxes is tentatively planning to meet on November 20 at 9 a.m. to hear, debate, and vote on these proposals.
FLC’s Legislative team has been working vigorously on behalf of Florida’s municipalities, advocating for a practical and comprehensive conversation regarding property taxes. However, we expect that these eight bills will be voted on and passed in the House Select Committee on Property Taxes. The bills are also expected to be voted on and passed quickly in their final two committees of reference (the House State Affairs Committee followed by the House Ways & Means Committee).
Upon passing their committees of reference, the bills are expected to be heard and voted on the House floor by the entire House membership as early as the first week of Legislative Session. If the bills are passed on the House floor, the bills will be sent to the Senate. Though we expect the House to hear and vote on property tax bills quickly, we do not expect the same from the Senate.
Property Taxes and the Senate
The Senate has yet to show its hand on the issue of property taxes. However, in order for legislation to come into effect or be placed on the ballot as a proposed state constitutional amendment, both the House and the Senate will need to vote on and pass the same bill or joint resolution.
This week during the Senate’s Committee on Finance and Tax meeting, in response to a question from Vice Chair Don Gaetz about the committee’s trajectory on property taxes, Chair Bryan Avila stated that it would be prudent “to take a slow and methodical and productive approach,” and that this approach was supported by the Senate President Ben Albritton. See Senate Committee on Finance and Tax 11/5/2025 Meeting at 48:17. Therefore, there is no indication that the Senate is in a rush to hear and vote on the eight House proposals.
Due to the Senate’s desire to take a methodical approach, we anticipate that the Senate will likely want to have a meeting committed to hearing from local governments and their perspectives on property taxes. Such a meeting is likely to be held in a committee that regulates fiscal policies or one that considers local government matters, so please keep an eye out and stay vigilant for the Senate’s meeting schedule in the next few weeks.
We need your help! The League has prepared a Property Tax Toolkit to help you communicate clearly with your community and legislators. The toolkit includes ready-to-use messaging materials to help you explain how property taxes work and why they matter.
Please reach out to your local legislators, particularly your state senator, and inform them of how your municipality raises and uses property taxes. We need legislators to understand the real-world impact property tax reform would have on municipalities and our citizens.
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