Weekly roundup: Property tax cut plan handed to voters

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Posted June 6, 2026 | By Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida

 A sweeping tax cut for homestead property owners pushed by Gov. Ron DeSantis now waits for voters to act after legislators quickly dispatched a third special session in less than three months.

After special sessions on congressional redistricting and the budget, the Republican-dominated House and Senate spent two days on the property tax proposal the governor’s office introduced less than a week earlier.

BEFORE THE VOTERS

The measure would increase the existing $50,000 exemption for homestead properties to $150,000 starting in 2027, rising to $250,000 in 2028. The exemption, though, doesn’t apply to school taxes, after lawmakers changed DeSantis’ plan Monday to protect districts from drastic cuts.

The constitutional amendment (HJR 1F) needs 60 percent support from voters to take effect. If it passes into law, the measure is expected to cut local government revenue across the state by more than $8.4 billion a year.

“Over the past several years, local governments have been the beneficiary of the days of milk and honey,” Crestview Republican Sen. Don Gaetz argued in support of the proposal. “They have gotten extraordinary increases in the amount of money they have available to spend and they spent it.”

House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, said he would have preferred the discussion to have occurred during the regular session, when the House settled on a measure in February that sought to eliminate most non-school homestead property taxes.

Most Democrats and local government officials argued that the monumental changes to the state’s tax structure will bankrupt some cities and counties, cripple water management districts and other special districts, shift tax burdens to renters and businesses, and regressively hit Floridians with fees for basic services.

“When the bill comes due, it won’t be paid by Tallahassee,” said Sen. Lavon Bracy Davis, D-Ocoee. “It will be paid by your city, your county, your neighborhood school, your library, your community. This proposal does not eliminate costs, it simply moves them. It is not tax relief, it is a tax shift.”

Under the measure, cities and counties would be restricted to spending property tax revenues on “core services,” including schools, police, firefighters, infrastructure, the environment, along with constitutional offices, such as property appraiser, elections and sheriffs.

The measure would also lower the cap on annual assessment increases for non-homestead properties, which include vacation and investment homes and commercial properties, from 10 percent to 5 percent.

Starting Jan. 1, 2027, first-time homeowners would have to display five years of residency to qualify for the new super exemption. Until they qualify, they would receive the current exemption that lifts local government and school district taxes on the first $25,000 of the appraised values of their primary properties and from non-school taxes on the value between $50,000 and $75,000.

OPENAI IN COURT

Claiming the product aided acts of violence, including a mass shooting at Florida State University, Florida became the first state to file a civil lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman.

“They need to pay for it by opening up their checkbook and changing the program to ensure that there are parental controls and that we are not endangering our kids,” Attorney General James Uthmeier said during a press conference in West Palm Beach.

Law enforcement officials say Phoenix Ikner, the alleged shooter of the April 17, 2025, attack at FSU, consulted with ChatGPT on weapons, ammunition and the ideal campus setting to kill as many people as possible.

OpenAI is already facing a civil lawsuit from the family of Tiru Chabba, one of the victims of the shooting. That suit was filed in federal court in Tallahassee, alleging ChatGPT enabled the attack by providing information on how to commit the attack.

At the time, OpenAI spokesman Drew Pusateri defended the company, saying it didn’t push Ikner to commit the massacre.

“In this case, ChatGPT provided factual responses to questions with information that could be found broadly across public sources on the internet, and it did not encourage or promote illegal or harmful activity,” Pusateri said in a statement when the lawsuit was filed.

SPEAKER’S NEXT JOB

Often in battles with DeSantis, Perez has claimed his support on matters such as immigration or artificial intelligence has been driven by President Donald Trump’s position over the governor’s.

On Tuesday, as the Legislature was completing DeSantis’ property tax overhaul for the November ballot, Trump rewarded Perez with an ambassadorship to Brazil.

“It’s very humbling that the President of the United States would entrust me with that nomination,” Perez said. “I’m sure there’s a process over the next several months that will take place for this nomination to eventually be confirmed. What that looks like, I have no idea.”

For months Perez, an attorney, has been coy about his post-Legislature plans.

Perez rejected the notion that the appointment was tied to language approved a week earlier in the tax package (HB 7031E) that allows diplomatic, intelligence, consular, or foreign service officers from Florida whose federal employer requires them to be overseas to retain their homestead exemptions.

Perez said the policy wasn’t discussed with the White House, which is “recognizing that there is a significant amount of talent, myself excluded, in Florida.”

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

“Our time together has been more than interesting. We have had our share of twists and turns, battles that seem to stretch on for weeks and months, victories that have been hard won. It hasn’t always been easy, but easy was never the point.” – House Speaker Daniel Perez addressing the House on Tuesday.