Taxes & Our City: Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper Discusses Proposals Coming Out Of The State Legislature

At the time of this meeting the State ended session without a budget and without any bills passing on taxes except for one for the House of Representative fully eliminating property tax on homestead property within ten years.

The following is my brief speech and introduction. There is still not a firm date for the state to go into special session, but we will still continue to follow this issue very closely.

I have flowed through all the discussions on this issue and have been watching the hearings over the past months. I keep thinking about how we will get here.

There had been this notion that floated on Social Media from a constituent, “I have paid for my house, why should I keep paying?” Our Governor commented on it and now has used it as a platform to cut property taxes. This statement that continues to be repeated is simply a false narrative. It is important to know the politics around this. Property taxes are to pay for services not mortgages.

How many of you think the state collects property tax? Well, they do not. Cities, counties and special districts do. This is why they are going after taxes. It is a deflection away from insurance cost and healthcare. The state does control those issues.

Does anyone know what rank Florida is when it comes to overall taxes? It used to rank the 4th lowest. In 2025, it now ranks 6th. Alaska is the lowest and Hawaii is the highest.

The question then becomes whether taxes are cut and what will happen to our level of services? The state is not touching school taxes which are on average a third of your taxes. Our CFO Geo Neste will get into more financial detail. The house bill passed a bill but no bill from the senate. The bill proposes the elimination of taxes on homestead properties over the next ten years.

It is clear that they have avoided answering the important questions about how cities and counties and districts will be able to address the cuts. During the hearings it was clear they are simply driven by politics not quality of life issues. They have stated that we cannot cut police or emergency services. There is not a sales tax increase on the table. So, this plan has no replacement revenue so every other service will be impacted.

Do you know if response times would be impacted, would you support tax cuts? If you knew a fire fee would need to be increased to cover services, would you vote for a tax cut? If you know that paying for the running of our public works services would require fee increases across water sewer stormwater? Would you support a tax cut? If we were to run our parks, we would have to increase fees and shutter our buildings, would you vote for a cut? You see where I am going with this. As a note, not one resident said yes.

I do not want it to seem like I’m spreading fear. I genuinely want our residents to know nothing is free and if our largest source of revenue is cut, we will still have services provided. I will continue to keep everyone posted.

Wishing all our residents and Blessed Passover and Easter. May this holiday time be filled with love and peace.

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!