Will Texas beat Florida to the property tax idea?
 

We should all be aware that the governor and state house members want to eliminate property taxes for all of us. Texas just came one step closer to being the first.

The Texas House pushed forward a proposal Monday aimed at containing property tax bills by putting tighter restrictions on cities and counties.

The legislation would further limit how much more in property tax revenue cities and counties can collect each year without voter approval. Under state law, that limit sits at 3.5%. The bill would take that limit down to 1%.
Texas House OKs bill limiting city, county property taxes | The Texas Tribune

Florida isn’t exactly sitting by, the governor’s idea to totally eliminate resident taxes has overwhelming support.
Ron DeSantis Updates Florida on 2026 Plan for Property Tax Vote - Newsweek

Which state will get it done first? Florida will rely on businesses and tourism taxes. Texas has taken the more streamlined approach. It should be interesting to see who comes first.

TX is going to discover that inflation affects services the Govt purchases as well as the groceries, cable, and lawn mowing services the citizens purchase. A 1% cap on Govt spending sounds great until one of the services cut is the one that you depend on.

FL will have the same issue if they further cap revenue increases.

FL will have a bigger problem if they eliminate property tax altogether. Sumter County alone will need to find an alternate source for $250M or about 50% of the budget.

And our law enforcement will suffer.
We complain about speeders now, 466 and 466A will turn into a Autobahn but
we'll be able to go to Costco and return faster. ������

59 Million for Sumter Sherrif
 

We allocated 59 million for the Sumter County Sheriff’s office next year. They hired 15:new personnel. Some of this is redundant if you live in Wildwood or Lady Lake who already have their own police forces already. It’s the redundancy that needs to go away.

When this gets on the ballot, and it will, do you really see a majority saying they want to keep paying property taxes?

All those county police departments are paid for by property taxes. Do away with property taxes, and you have to come up with the money from somewhere else. Tourism taxes are already being paid, you'd have to double those, maybe even triple them. And of course that means fewer people able to afford to dine out, visit, rent hotels or cars in Floridas, go to campgrounds, short-term rent anywhere in the state including AirBnB or Villages Lifestyle Visits, which means less money back into the county coffers, which means less money to pay for all those extra police they need to make up for the loss of the property taxes that did pay for them.

Now, if they want to impose a MODEST income tax - perhaps a 2% tax on gross income over the first $40k or 50k/year, that might work (the first $40/50k wouldn't be subject to that income tax at all, allowing the low and low-middle income folks to keep more of their hard-earned money)

Wrong, the governor doesn’t want to eliminate property taxes for all of us. Owning a home in Florida and paying property taxes doesn’t qualify someone. They also have to have Florida as their official state of residence. There are many, many, many homeowners in Florida that are part time residents who wouldn’t qualify, but instead would get stuck making up for lost revenue.

There is no redundancy. There is a Wildwood PD that services city of Wildwood, a County Sheriff that services the county outside the city, and a mutual aid agreement in case it is needed. If the Wildwood PD went away then the Sumter County Sheriff would need to staff up to cover the gap.

As far as property taxes go, there is no "this" to get on the ballot yet. There is a pitch by the Governor that few in the legislature are going to disagree with but it is only a pitch with no details behind it. When a real proposal is made that can be analyzed for its impact on services, then we'll see how many get behind it.

If you go fishing with offers of free stuff you'll get a lot of bites, even when the end result is bad.

I get the impression everyone wants to pay taxes? How about we stop giving away freebies and use that money for public services...

Exactly!
I think this is one of those " be careful what you wish for" situations.
Don't get me wrong, I don't love paying property tax. But the counties, cities and schools depend on tax money. So it's going to have to come from somewhere.

I like our Governor but this idea seems half baked to me. It sounds good on the surface, but in reality it's going to hurt in the long run.

Maybe giving retirees and residents under a certain income level a break on property tax would be worth looking at, not eliminating it.

Enjoy you 30% sales tax if this passes

One way or another everyone is going to pay what they are paying now if not more. If Florida chooses to tax businesses heavily some will leave and others will raise the cost of their goods or services, county gas and home utilities will have higher taxes, investment properties will continue to pay property taxes so tenants will be getting paying more than homeowners as part of their rent is for the owners property taxes. Either services will be cut drastically or there will be a lot of taxation and or assessments going on. I would vote not to eliminate property taxes however I would like to see a limit on the amount that can be charged going forward.

Right now a significant amount of the tax burden is on those who own real estate. Thus wealthier people. Of course renters end up paying some of that via higher rent as well.

But, consistent with the philosophy that poor people need to pay more so rich people pay less, certain people suggest getting rid of any tax which might hit the wealthy. Of course the money will have to be replaced. The easiest way to do that is to increase the sales tax which it is well known, hits low earners much harder as they spend (thus get sales taxed) on a much higher percent of their earnings than high earners who save thus not exposed to a sales tax.

Tax burden the poor, line the pockets of the wealthy. Trickle up economics with a sledgehammer.

We don't know the details but I would bet big investors who own so much property especially in Tampa would want to be included in this and for all we know lobbied for it.

But there is
 

But there is taxation redundancy for people who live in areas where the Sheriff’s Department isn’t needed or required. If I pay for police support already in Wildwood, Leesburg or Lady Lake, I don’t need the Sheriffs Department. I already have a city police department. Perhaps a skeleton sized crew for state warrants or corrections is needed, but there is no need to pay for two police departments like municipal residents already do. I guess the unincorporated portions benefit, but Wildwood residents get nothing from the increased spending.

The insult to injury was paying for yet more protection (15 additional positions) in the Sheriff’s Department while we carry much more in taxes paying for our increased police budget here in Wildwood.

Different ways of looking at it.

1. Your tax funds pay little of the Sheriff budget and mine pay less of county funding of Wildwood items. It all looks the same on the tax notice but the money is used differently.

2. You live in the county so you pay for county services whether you use them or not. I live in the county so I pay for school teachers whether I use them or not. We all pay for maintenance of the roads around Webster and Mabel though few of us will ever drive on them. The county services cost less for each of us because we all pay for them. You get better police coverage because your Wildwood taxes fund fewer services leaving more for the Wildwood PD.

3. Disband the Wildwood PD and your county taxes will increase to plus up the Sheriff staffing needed to answer calls in Wildwood.

4. For the increased spending, you actually receive service from two departments while I only receive service from one.

5. If you live in Wildwood then you can be elected to the Wildwood city council and push to disband the PD and lower your taxes - be part of the solution.

If you lived in Wildwood or Leesburg
 

If you paid an extra hundred dollars a month in taxes to Wildwood or Leesburg, you would understand how we already overpay for what seems like nothing in return.

We see the justification for those taxes generally under their term “Economic Development.”

Now we have the super cool parking deck for our thrift store and a beauty shop that houses a car or two per week. Of course because of “Economic Development” taxpayers to Wildwood paid 50,000 dollars per parking space in that lot.

I know the Sheriff’s Department can respond to Wildwood needs, but Wildwood already has an over staffed police department.

My point, there is waste, there is taxation redundancy.

absolutely correct. . people want to eliminate successful programs just to be disruptors, instead of just being sensible, and making adjustments, such as the first 200,000 of valuation is zero, similar to the single married income tax deduction. . . .

but upsetting all kinds of planned budgets, both spending and raising money, has unknown unintended consequences. . lots of political idiocracy going around these days. .

its expensive to move somewhere, both business and citizens, and then have all the financial rules change, and risk those movers fleeing and having the large shortfalls show up, disrupting the plans both citizens and business made for coming here in the first place. .

citizens and business all want stability and predictability, especially retirees and businesses. . disrupting the reasons many moved here to political pandering, doesn't make alot of sense to me. . . when I can plan my spending to my income, knowing that i have a one time property tax payment, versus increased costs for who knows which activities or all activities. .

so for every $5,000 of property taxes, what will be increased? business taxes = restaurant prices, clothing prices, retail prices, alcohol prices, airline tickets, cruise prices, disney prices, rental car prices, gasoline prices, etc. . . there is no free lunch people, no taxes, no services. . property taxes are predictable for county budgets, switching to activity base income can be variable year to year, and very hard to plan and budget for services. . .

This all started with If you own your home outright, why should you be taxed on your property and it has sprouted out to so many thoughts. Everything else I buy and own isn't taxed, so why should my home be taxed if it is paid in full?

No Property Taxes Would be a Huge Influx of Development
 

Exactly!

One positive would be a booming real estate sector. Many would consider Florida as the place to move to or retire in. Further, financial institutions would see those 2.5 % mortgages paid off. Florida would explode with building and development.

As it seems you haven't noticed, Florida is already exploding with building and development.

for public services because you live here. . . if you don't pay property taxes, the other items you own may be taxed to fund the public services. . .

unless you want the fire department to charge only the customers it services, so an EMT ambulance call will cost $6,000 or so, and if you say ok, fine, and my insurance will pick that up, well, your health insurance will go up to cover that payment. . . or not cover it at all

public services are not free, this isn't a communistic country, its a mixed socialism/capitalism society, where some public service costs are socialized, such as roads, fire, police, and other local services. .

The services provided by the county need to be funded somehow and what better way than to tax the people who use the services? The people who use the services are the people who live here. The people who live here either own or rent property here. Taxing property in the county is a great way to fund the services provided by the county.

Yes, the county levies a small sales tax. If the property tax was replaced by an increased county sales tax then it would need to be raised from 1% to 6.5% making the overall sales tax 12.5%. Lake and Marion counties would love for that to happen.

So if taxing the residents of Sumter County for the services provided by Sumter County is out, what would you propose as an alternative?

You sure about that? You didn't pay tax on your car? You don't pay tax on your meals when you dine out? You didn't pay tax on your computer or phone? You pay no tax on every gallon of gas you buy for your car, or every unit of electricity you use on your EV? Yes, yes you do pay tax on all of that. It's not property tax, but it's tax. You also pay registration fees every year on your car based on weight - it's not called a tax, but that's what it is.

Most things you buy - are taxed.

Yes... Taxed ONCE! Not yearly, in perpetuity...

I think they discovered outrageous inflation about 3 years ago. Sumter country probably cheapest county to live in I villages. Marion being the highest. So far my estimated county taxes down about 3% from last year, but I won’t hold my breath until I pay it.

Red light cameras.. ..

So, why does that make it right? :faint: Just cause they tax us don’t make it god given right. O wait??????

Elections are coming up.

OK, let’s go with that. All other things being equal, why should one person who owns their home free and clear not pay any taxes, and their next door neighbor, who also owns their home free and clear, have to pay taxes simply because they are a part time resident? Either you own the home or you don’t. And part time residents typically utilize less services funded by taxes than full timers? Go figure, this whole property tax thing is just buying votes.

Be cautious. You get what you pay for. Taxes pay for education, and many services to its people, too many to mention. Education in both states are lacking even though we are told otherwise. Just check the records for yourself.

Might want to revisit that thought..

people over 65 should be exempt from paying property tax.

Ain’t going to happen. Where would the $ come to replace this loss of income! Wishful thinking

Yep

People who don’t live in City Pay More
 

I’m sure people who don’t live in the city pay more in county taxes than those that do. I know for a fact unincorporated Seminole County has a different tax rate than those of us who own property in Sanford. We pay city taxes and county taxes but the unincorporated sections have a higher county tax rate. If your county commissioners haven’t changed unincorporated verses municipality rates, they certainly can. Our village is in Leesburg and I’m fairly certain there are two different county rates.

Property tax should be dropped for senior citizens who have lived in Florida and filed homestead exception for at least 10 year prior to be coming a senior citizen.

OK, so very large senior citizen retirement communities pay no property taxes, like TV, and the remaining population has to pay double or more to support the services you are using. . . you are going to be real popular outside TV when the low cost of living just explodes and the locals all have to raise salaries and rates to cover your being old entitlement attitude. . . plumbing, landscaping electrical work all jumps by some large percentage just to cover your age royalty?

Redundancy in local governments has been there and has been a problem for years. Most people do like "local" control, Getting rid of property taxes will create a huge can of worms. Why fix something when it is not broken? As an aside those hated snowbirds will love it. Only pay sales tax for several months and no property taxes. 99% of them will buy their car(heavy taxed item) elsewhere

Heard that it will be closer to 15% but when people can choose how they pay taxes all bets are off. Will kill a lot of businesses at either rate such as restaurants. Good way to get a lot of stuff off store shelves which people do not need.

The taxes paid to the Sumter Co. Sheriff's dept. Goes to things that the Wildwood PD doesn't have. Think of things like a helicopter. IDK the extent of Wildwood's detective division or police lab but these are the services the County Sheriffs provide so the smaller city PD doesn't have to fund and maintain these things.