Curiosity and anxiety. Those seem to be the two most common responses to property tax reform in Florida. The legislature is working on several iterations and some type of change is likely to make its way to the November ballot and would require 60% of voters to approve. Any change wouldn’t take effect until the 2028 budget year, which begins on Oct. 1, 2027.
On Feb. 10, Broward County Property Appraiser Marty Kiar released an overview of each bill and their estimated impacts on Wilton Manors and Broward County.
Backstory
Kiar says this all got started because Gov. Ron DeSantis saw an angry tweet about property taxes and the fact that you never really “pay off” your property. People started talking about eliminating all property taxes. But seeing as the taxes are the primary source of funding for towns and cities, the revenue has to be made up somewhere.
Polls quickly found that as much as people hate property taxes, they think the likely alternative, raising the sales tax to between 13% and 17%, even more distasteful. Now competing proposals are working their way through Tallahassee.
HJR 201: Elimination of Non-School Property Tax for Homesteaded Properties
This would get rid of all ad valorem taxes except school funding. Three thousand two hundred and forty-seven Wilton properties would be affected. The median savings would be $3,326, and would cut the city's funding by $6.25 million or 39.5%.
HJR 203: Phased Out Elimination of Non-School Property Tax for Homesteads
This phases out non-school taxes over 10 years, allowing towns and cities to adjust. Broward would see a 10.7% hit the first year. Median savings would be $1,400 and be an 11.7% hit to the city. This also mandates funding reductions to first responders.
HJR 205: Elimination of Non-School Property Tax for Homesteaded Property for Persons Age 65 or Older
Like the title suggests, this would be a boon for seniors who are often on fixed incomes. Seniors also tend to vote in higher proportions than young people making this, theoretically, more likely to pass in November.
This would affect 1,375 Wilton properties and be a 12.3% decrease to revenue.
HJR 209: Property Insurance Relief Homestead Exemption of Non-School Properties
This would increase the homestead exemption to $200,000 for those with property insurance. The impact is hard to estimate since Kiar’s office doesn’t track which homes are insured.
He estimates a median savings of $2,800 and a roughly 20% decrease to city funding.
HJR 211: Accrued Save-Our-Homes Property Tax Benefit for Non-School Property Tax
This is also difficult to estimate, but it’s expected to impact northern communities harder. Homestead portability lets people carry their exemptions and apply them, proportionally, to new properties.
People can get more home for their buck in other places, meaning smaller communities wouldn’t realize true revenue increases when a piece of land sells.
In Wilton, this would only affect 83 properties and be an average savings of $800 and a minimal, $30,000 hit to the city
HJR 213: Modification of Limitations on Property Assessment Increases
This would affect non-homestead properties too. Properties would only be evaluated every three years and assessments on homesteaded land would only increase by 3% every three years, instead of the annual. Non-homestead could only go up 15% every three-year cycle.
Each proposal preserves school taxes and prevents funding cuts to first responders.
This is a snapshot of the current proposals. Some or all could be amended or die in committee or floor votes. New ones could appear. We’ll have a better idea in April once the session concludes. However, DeSantis says he will call a special session to make sure that a proposal goes to voters.
