Taxation has impacted all of us throughout history. It has created the rise and fall of entire nations and even effects the food we buy; cars we drive and houses we purchase. Some basic taxes have been around since early civilization approximately 5,000 years ago. Taxation began before coinage was used as a monetary source of payment. Pharaoh collected a 20 percent tax on all grain harvested, payable of course with grain. Juluis Caesar implemented the first sales tax and Caesar Augustus put into practice the first direct income tax. Once taxation started it grew to be an easy funding source for government entities. These funding sources generally come with a promise to provide more and better services to its citizens. So many of these historical and current promises are generally underfunded and so overstated that most citizens never got or get their money’sworth for providing their hard-earned money to fund the government.

Governor Ron DeSantis stated “The reality is this, local governments have overspent, and people are paying more and more for that. And at some point it’s like, when is enough, enough?” He added that in “2019 in Florida total amount of revenue for local governments was $32 billion and you know what it is now $56 Billion. That’s a massive increase.” That is a 57% increase!!!! Florida property taxes stay at the local government level and help fund the local county government operations. The state government does not receive any funding from Florida property taxes.

Florida has 32 small fiscally constrained counties that have expressed concerned over how the local governments can continue to operate with losing the homestead property tax funding. Homestead property tax revenue is estimated to be only 30% of the total property tax revenue. The remaining 70% is composed of non-resident (second home residents) property and commercial properties. Wednesday, Governor DeSantis released his proposed budget which set aside $300 million in nonrecurring funding to cover a potential loss in property tax revenue for the 32 small counties. Although this is non-recurring money, Florida’s tourism is strong generating 133.6 Billion in 2024. In addition to the on-going tourist spending Florida has very strong reserves. The long-term solution for the loss of revenue has not been defined. However, it is time for local governments to refocus revenue generation and hopefully they will not do that by increasing the current taxes its citizens are currently paying. Or a better thought is to operate the local entity eliminating excessive spending and waste and operate the entityfor effectiveness and productivity.

The Governor is pushing for an initiate to have the homestead property tax on the November 2026 ballot, so the voting citizens of Florida can have the final say as to whether they want to continue to pay property taxes on their homesteaded home. The initiate must receive 60% of the vote to become a constitutional provision. If and once the initiative receives 60% of the vote, then the Florida citizens have gained constitutional protection from future politicians and political groups who would like to add additional taxation as their budget deficits widens. Florida will be the only state that does not have a state income tax or homestead property tax.

I guess the old adage of “only two things are certain death and taxes” just may need to be revised to say some taxes. Please get involved and encourage your state leaders to eliminate the homestead property tax and encourage local leadership to operate in an effective and productive manner.

Happy Holidays,

Mary Ann Hutton, Founder​​