Property tax proposal has direconsequences for Florida cities

(Sun Sentinel Opinion)

There is a quiet but unmistakable irony in Gov. DeSantis’ proposal to phase out property taxes on primary residences. He presents it as a liberation for homeowners, a kind of populist gesture meant to shield ordinary Floridians from rising costs. Yet the very structure of Florida’s Constitution, and the long-standing balance between state and local authority, makes his plan not only impractical, but deeply destabilizing for the counties and municipalities that keep daily life functioning.

Florida has always been a state where local government carries the weight of essential services. Counties and cities maintain the roads, run the fire stations, staff the police departments, operate the parks, and keep the libraries open. They do this because the Florida Constitution gives them the authority, and the responsibility, to levy property taxes, the backbone of local finance. It is not a luxury; it is the mechanism that allows communities to breathe.

To suggest that this revenue can simply be erased, and that local governments can “turn to the uber-wealthy landowners” to make up the difference, is to overlook a fundamental truth: Florida law does not allow counties or cities to create special tax classes targeting the wealthy. Property taxes must be uniform. A mansion and a modest home may differ in value, but they are taxed under the same rules. No local government can impose a special millage rate on “the rich,” no matter how politically convenient the idea may sound.

The governor’s proposal also leans heavily on the notion that tourists and out-of-towners can fill the gap. But here again, the constitutional and statutory limits are clear. Counties may levy a Tourist Development Tax — the familiar bed tax — on hotel stays and short-term rentals. A few cities, grandfathered by special acts from decades ago, may impose narrow resort taxes. But no local government in Florida can tax tourist consumption broadly. They cannot tax restaurant meals, retail purchases, entertainment or services. Those powers belong exclusively to the state.

In other words, the governor is offering local governments tools they do not possess and cannot legally acquire without constitutional amendment. It is, in the style of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a sweeping, ideological promise that ignores the practical machinery of governance. It is easy to declare that “the wealthy” and “the tourists” will pay. It is much harder to reconcile that declaration with the legal framework that has governed Florida for generations.

And beneath the legal contradictions lies something more human, more intimate: the lived reality of communities that depend on stable, predictable revenue to serve their residents. When property taxes on primary homes are phased out, especially up to the $500,000 threshold the governor originally floated, counties and municipalities will face a fiscal cliff. They will not be able to maintain the same level of police protection, fire response, park maintenance or public works. They will not be able to plan long-term infrastructure. They will not be able to protect the quality of life that Floridians have come to expect.

The burden will not fall on the wealthy, who can absorb service reductions with private alternatives. It will fall on the middle class, the very people the governor claims to protect, who rely on public services because they cannot replace them on their own.

Florida’s local governments are not abstract entities. They are the quiet, steady hands that keep communities safe, clean and livable. To strip them of their primary revenue source without offering a legally viable replacement is not reform. It is a dismantling.

And it is the citizens, not the wealthy landowners, not the tourists, who will feel the consequences most acutely.

Antonio S. Grau is the founder of Grau & Associates, a Boca Raton accounting firm specializing in auditing and consulting for governmental and nonprofit entities.