By John Pacenti
Tallahassee’s drip, drip, drip erosion of home rule is about to become a tsunami as Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican supermajority’s war on municipalities is now aimed at draining their lifeblood: property taxes.
If the most extreme proposal — HJR 201 — in the Florida House succeeds in eliminating virtually all property taxes on homestead properties, then towns and cities would have to find new ways to pay for simple services beyond policing — or cut them out of their budgets entirely — municipal leaders say. That’s what’s on the table during the annual two-month session of the state Legislature that starts Jan. 13.
Forget about money for fireworks, festivals and events — never mind whatever Republicans in the Legislature find “woke,” like Pride celebrations. The questions would now be more basic, like how to fund a fire department.
“We would face some pretty serious reductions,” said Boca Raton City Council member — and mayoral candidate — Andy Thomson.
“Imagine if you just wipe out our revenue. That is a catastrophe — a catastrophe,” said Democrat Rob Long, the newly elected District 90 state representative and former Delray Beach vice mayor.
“It’s as though Tallahassee is deconstructing the recipe of what success looks like, and then just deteriorating what quality of life will be in cities,” said Ocean Ridge Town Manager Michelle Heiser.
Make no mistake, the proposal to eliminate property taxes has support. With property values increasing, municipalities are flush with cash and spending like drunken sailors, critics say.
David Wesley Cornish, a new Boynton Beach resident, said at his city’s Sept. 8 budget hearing that placing the burden of raising revenue on property owners is “un-American.”
“Why does it have to be the people in here who own property, who follow the rules, who go to work every day and do what we’re supposed to do to make the community better, and we’re the people getting penalized,” Cornish said.
Legislation being considered
At least eight proposals to eliminate property taxes in some way are under consideration in the Florida House of Representatives. HJR201 would eliminate all non-school ad valorem taxes for homestead properties.
The idea is to put one or more of the initiatives on the 2026 November ballot. Those measures would have to reach a 60% threshold — something that is not easy, as supporters of measures on abortion and marijuana found out last election.
HJR 201 made sure to protect funding for law enforcement, knowing no measure would withstand opposition from the powerful police unions. The bill would force municipalities to keep a certain level of police services but make them find ways of paying for them that don’t include taxing homestead properties.
A war on municipalities
The Coastal Star spoke with numerous public officials. Some insisted on talking on background, as many expressed concerns about potential retribution from Tallahassee.
What they said was this: Many lawmakers who are leading this charge hail from Podunk counties with no idea of the needs or finances of South Florida cities like Delray Beach, Boynton Beach and Boca Raton — or even small coastal towns, the officials said.
They say DeSantis wants to distract from his failure to rein in home insurance costs and/or that he spent $50 million, by some estimates, in taxpayer dollars to fight abortion and marijuana initiatives in 2024.
The governor created his own Elon Musk-inspired Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE) to target mostly Democrat-run counties like Palm Beach, Orange, and Hillsborough.
He unleashed Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, who has often cited fantastical figures to bash those same Democrat-run counties, according to municipal sources.
Over the past few years, any number of bills have been designed to strip away home rule.
Municipalities, including Delray Beach and Palm Beach, have filed suit against the state over SB180, signed into law last year. It effectively froze local growth management and planning efforts in local municipalities.
Then there is the newly strengthened Live Local Act, which takes the power away from municipalities to keep out big, unwieldy developments.
There have been others, from prohibiting handbills and environmental lawsuits to regulating restaurants.
“Four years ago, they started it in subtle ways, so that it became more normalized to see bits and pieces kind of get carved off,” Heiser said. “And then all of a sudden, now there’s this issue in your face that almost everything is being preempted.”
DeSantis’ brand of white Christian nationalist governance in 2025 included using the state transportation department to erase intersections and crosswalks that honored LGBTQ communities, often paving them over in the middle of the night under the guise of traffic safety.
Many new preemptive laws, said one elected leader, provide provisions to remove those from office who dare to stand up to Tallahassee and invoke home rule.
“Threatening fines and removal from office to suppress local home rule prerogatives is undemocratic and unconstitutional,” Delray Beach Commissioner Juli Casale said.
“Home rule is provided for in the Florida Constitution and by statute. Home rule enhances democracy by enabling local elected officials to address local concerns and solve local problems, as they were elected to do so.”
‘A weird cultural divide’
Many municipal officials say there is an unprecedented disdain in Tallahassee for municipalities of any size.
“I think for all municipalities in the state of Florida, they need to remember that, per our Constitution, the cities and counties exist at the permission of the state,” Republican Sen. Jason Brodeur said at the Dec. 8 meeting of the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee.
Brodeur’s headquarters is in Lake Mary in Seminole County, with a population of about 17,000. It is about as far from diverse South Florida communities as heaven is wide.
“They think that local governments are crazy and not trustworthy, and they want to eliminate them in some manner. And this is one way of doing it,” Thomson said.
Long said it all adds up to deflection and distraction, not governance.
“It’s just a really misguided belief about how economies actually function in Florida, and there does seem to be a real weird cultural divide between local government and state government that I don’t fully understand, given the Republican mantra is small government’s good,” he said.
An unfair tax?
DeSantis, speaking to the Forum Club on Oct. 15 at West Palm Beach’s Kravis Center, explained his thinking on the proposal.
“It’s almost like you are renting from the government,” the governor said. “So what we said is that it’s not like we are eliminating it from every property, but as your personal homestead property, we want you to be able to own that free and clear.”
Boynton Beach City Manager Dan Dugger, at the city’s Sept. 8 budget meeting, said he would vote to eliminate property taxes because he lives in the city and pays “a substantial amount of property taxes.”
“We’re going to have to look at more of a fee-based system so that we can actually replace that revenue,” he said. “And we also have to look at what Tallahassee is proposing as a solution or alternative funding source.”
Dugger said he has heard about elevating sales tax to where municipalities will have an allocation based on population, including demographics such as income and age.
“It’s an exciting thing, and at the same time, it’s something that definitely is a precarious situation that we have to navigate through, and there’s going to be some challenges, but we can definitely get there,” Dugger said.
Core services in jeopardy
Palm Beach County Administrator Joe Abruzzo said eliminating homestead property taxes would decimate the county’s budget and force painful cuts to essential services.
“That’s roads and bridges, that’s planning, zoning and building, that’s Parks and Rec. It’s massive,” he said, and warned that Palm Beach County Fire Rescue would lose about $250 million in potential impacts to fire-rescue funding.
Abruzzo explained how Tallahassee fundamentally doesn’t understand local government, pointing to Ingoglia’s use of the Consumer Price Index to falsely claim the county wasted $344 million last fiscal year. Ingoglia provided not one example of waste, though.
“The Consumer Price Index doesn’t match what we’re purchasing of any sort here in the county,” Abruzzo said.
He said the county, through property taxes, pays for 30 departments to the tune of $600 million. Another $120 million in capital outlay is earmarked for construction projects.
“Local government would not be able to function. It’s not a joke, it’s not a fallacy,” he said. “Our local governments would be beyond devastated.”
Delray Beach City Manager Terrence Moore said recent state laws “while well-intentioned, have nonetheless introduced certain constraints on the traditional home-rule authority exercised by municipalities.”
As a result, Moore said the laws have created adverse impacts on Delray Beach’s ability to effectively self-govern on a local level, “particularly in areas where community character and neighborhood quality of life rely on finely tuned, place-specific approaches.”
He said the added layer of Tallahassee bureaucracy can introduce complexities that make it more challenging for city staff to respond as swiftly and comprehensively as city residents expect.
He said the city hopes to “engage in the broader consensus on the appropriate balance between state oversight and municipal autonomy.”
Shifting the burden
In the meantime, non-homestead properties — such as businesses, rental properties and second homes — would see their taxes skyrocket, hurting economic growth and worsening the housing crisis, officials said.
Boca Raton would lose around $57 million if ad valorem taxes from homestead properties were eliminated. In most South County municipalities, homestead properties account for more than a quarter of the property taxes they collect — topping 55% in Gulf Stream.
Besides eliminating services, municipalities would look to recoup that revenue. One way would be to increase taxes on non-homestead properties: businesses, second homes and rental properties.
“Businesses would take the brunt. Or, you know, apartments. Those aren’t homesteaded,” Thomson said.
“So you’re talking about potentially increasing the affordability crisis, really for the renter, because it would be passed on. Of course it would be.”
The other option would be to start charging for services that are currently free, such as using the library, he said.
Thomson added that there is already property tax relief. The Save Our Homes Act caps increases in a homestead property value at 3% annually, even if the increase in value is double digits. Municipalities miss out on that extra revenue.
While the House proposals generally carve out public safety, Thomson warned that Boca Raton would still face major budget pressures that could indirectly affect police staffing or services if other revenue or cuts aren’t found.
Impact will vary
In Ocean Ridge, the worst-case scenario is a bit different.
Heiser, the town manager, said HJR201 would provide a modest financial hit because fewer than half of the town’s residents have homesteaded their properties.
“These bills are going to impact the cities that have the highest percentage for homesteading,” Heiser said, noting that Ocean Ridge’s large number of second homes and investment properties provides some insulation.
However, she expressed concern about the broader trend of state preemption of local authority. She asked how in the world a town is going to be able to lobby for special events if HJR201 passes. “If you couldn’t fund the event, you’re not going to be able to fund the lobbying that it would take to get the money for the event,” she said.
Gulf Stream’s lobbying
The main opposition to the potential property tax initiatives is the Florida League of Cities, which has stressed home rule and fiscal realism, calling it a “Tallahassee takeover.”
In 2025, the league honored Gulf Stream with its Home Rule Hero Award, noting Town Clerk Reneé Basel. The award notes local officials who went above their duties to reach out to state lawmakers to give a local perspective.
“Reneé played a key role in educating legislators on the importance of preserving home rule — the ability of municipalities to address local issues with local solutions and minimal state interference,” Gulf Stream Mayor Scott Morgan said.
He said the timing was “particularly significant” considering the tax initiatives.
“These proposals would effectively dismantle the traditional home rule authority of Florida’s municipalities,” Morgan said. “Cities would be unable to provide even basic services without financial support from the state, shifting critical budgetary and policy decisions to lawmakers in Tallahassee — far removed from the needs and interests of small communities like Gulf Stream.”
Manalapan’s wait and see
In the meantime, next door in Manalapan — one of the wealthiest communities in the county — Town Manager Eric Marmer is taking a stay calm approach, feeling that there’s a lot of sound and fury coming out of Tallahassee, but, as of yet, it signifies nothing.
He said he isn’t losing sleep over the proposed property tax changes because he’s seen no workable replacement plan and prefers to focus on the work that needs to be done for his municipality.
“I don’t have the time to worry about it, to be honest, until it’s time to worry about it,” Marmer said. He called the proposal “an unfeasible proposition” but expressed confidence that residents understand the role taxes play.
“We don’t like property taxes, but this is why we can flush our toilets and we have running drinking water and the police show up at our homes.”
On tap in the state Legislature
Many bills are seeking to cut property taxes in the annual legislative session that starts Jan. 13. Any that are approved could result in constitutional amendments on the November ballot needing 60% voter approval.
• HJR201: Eliminates non-school ad valorem taxes for homestead properties;
• HJR 203: Creates new $100,000 homestead exemption each year for 10 years;
• HJR 207: Establishes a new 25% non-school homestead exemption;
• HJR 209: Adds a $200,000 exemption for homesteads with active property insurance;
• HJR 211: Eliminates the $500,000 “Save Our Homes” portability cap, allowing residents to carry their full assessment reduction to a new property.
• HJR 213: Reduces the annual assessment growth cap for non-homestead properties — businesses, rentals and second homes— from 10% to 5%.
• HB 215: Requires a two-thirds vote from a municipal governing body to approve any millage rate increase above the state-defined rollback rate.
— John Pacenti
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