One Size Does Not Fit All - Property Tax Update By Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper

There are many cities, particularly smaller rural cities and those that have limited commercial property that will not be able to afford public safety let alone other basic services. Actually, many police and fire agencies made the trek to Tallahassee to vocally speak against it. Even Tax Watch spoke against the bill for being rushed and not sufficiently vetted.

So what does it do? It provides, if it passes in 2027, all homesteaded properties that owners declared residency by January 2027 will have an exemption of 150,000 and in 2028: 250,000. If residency is declared after 2027, they will have to be a resident for five full years for the 250,000 exemption. Those residents will be able to receive a 25,000 exemption for school taxes and up to 50,000 for other taxes. Currently, there is an over 10 percent cap of non-homestead now it will be reduced to 5 percent. It does not apply to school taxes.

Not paying taxes always sounds great. The issue is that this revenue is the major revenue that local governments depend on to serve our residents. Cities and counties and special taxing districts, hospitals, children’s services, water and flood control to name a few.

It also defines that government can only spend money for core public “needs” including public safety, education and schools, Infrastructure and natural resources. There is language also referencing existing pension obligations. Obviously, this is pretty ambiguous language. Are parks core needs? Community centers? Senior Centers?

Broward County Property Appraiser has done an evaluation of every city and our county impacts. Last week, the projection was at 10.4 percent reduction which equated to 4.7 million for Hallandale Beach annually. I do not have updated figures at the time of writing this article. It has been an interesting proposition. We are fortunate to have a good mix of commercial and non-homestead properties.

The issue becomes what happened in the year where pension obligations increase due to lack of investment returns. In that year, we have to pay the obligation but may not have the revenue to pay. All money for tax must provide for services what gets cuts.

While the state budget and property taxes were the main focus of special session. There was an additional bill passed that further mandates how local governments can change the millage rate. The Florida law allows cities to apply up to 10 mills overall. The new law requires that if local governments want to increase the millage rate by over 110% of the roll back rate to fund their budget it will require a super majority vote.

This may sound reasonable, but it does mean in years where government cost index are high and we are required to find basic services there could be a stalemate of on the dais. When cities or counties cannot pass a budget, a city could go in default with agencies including the state.

I've been posting lately in different Social Media accounts about this issue. One of the first responses was from a homesteaded resident that said “if it sounds too good to be true it is” and “the devil is in the details” others are “yeah, we should cut taxes.” To flip the coin on the question to ask people what in fact if we have to cut services what they want cut?

Are the details people don't want to talk about? What will happen to response times? Do you want your streets paved sooner or later? Do you want public spaces maintained? Do you want quicker turnarounds with services? What will the fees be for parks, libraries, and community centers?

As always, I am available anytime for your questions, concerns, and ideas to make our City a better place on my Phone/Text at: (954) 632-5700. Or you can email me at: jcooper@cohb.org. Please visit me on my Facebook page at: Mayor Joy Cooper. Like! Follow! And share!