As usual, the media is asking the wrong questions concerning the property tax relief offered by the Florida Legislature.
“Oh, woe is us. What will happen to the cities losing all that money?” they thunder from their ivory towers.
How about this: “How will this benefit Florida families that are struggling to pay their bills?”
Politicians in local government across Florida are proclaiming gloom and doom if the people choose their family’s needs over pork and government jobs.
In Jacksonville, the City Council was told that the city government might receive $300 million less in tax revenue.
That’s from $1.2 billion in property tax revenue pointed out no one.
Under the plan, the homestead exemption would rise from $50,000 to $150,000 in 2027 and then to $250,000 in 2028. Lawmakers would later be required to develop a path toward increasing the exemption to $500,000 and beyond. School taxes are not affected.
According to a projection from the state’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research, approximately 76% of Floridians could have their homestead property taxes eliminated at that $500,000 figure.
Here’s the key point: This is going on the ballot. If the politicians are persuasive, the people will turn it down and continue to contribute a sizeable chunk of their paychecks to City Hall.
All the politicians and bureaucrats need to do is convince Jacksonville residents that the government needs the money worse than the people who earned it and use it for food, clothing and shelter, not to mention college for the kids and retirement.
Some of them might ask themselves: “I’m doing a lot of belt-tightening. Why can’t the politicians do the same?”
City Council President Nick Howland seems to have a pretty good grasp on the problem, as it relates to the city’s $9 billion budget.
“We’ve gotta make sure that we’re focused on spending on the core, and then anything else that we can cut, we can cut. It doesn’t mean that we’re spending less money on what matters, it probably means we’re focusing the money on spending where it does matter,” Howland told First Coast News.
That’s precisely what homeowners are doing.
One possible scenario is that the council will increase the tax rate to bring in more money if the tax relief is approved. Since homeowners would be shielded, that will mean the burden will shift to businesses, who of course will be forced to raise prices. Taxes are a cost of doing business.
Thus, a good bit of the property tax would become a hidden tax, which politicians love.
