A bald, white man in a dark blue suit and a light blue collared shirt is standing and speaking into a microphone. He is on a stage or at a public event. Other people are seated in the foreground and background, including a Black woman with glasses and a man in a navy suit and yellow patterned tie. A black curtain serves as the backdrop. — Then-candidate Alan Clendenin at Tampa Garden Club in Tampa, Florida on Feb. 22, 2023. Credit: Photo by Dave Decker / Creative Loafing Tampa Bay

TAMPA — Local government officials throughout Florida should be among the most interested viewers tuning into the Florida Channel next week when the House Select Committee on Property Taxes convenes for the first time in months in Tallahassee.

Some of those concerns — and excitement — about the still-unwritten plan promoted to substantially reduce or eliminate property taxes for Florida homeowners was discussed at the Tampa Tiger Bay meeting on Friday.

The challenge for local public officials debating a likely constitutional amendment to that effect on next year’s ballot in Florida is that no one knows exactly what the proposal will call for.

All options on the table

“Do you think the constitutional amendment will give the either/or, so if we do away with property taxes for homesteaded properties that at the same time we’ll have a choice to make on how that happens?” Hillsborough County Property Appraiser Bob Henriquez asked state Rep. Berny Jacques (R-Seminole). “Or do you think the complete proposal includes some form of backfill?”

“It’s too early to say one way or another,” Jacques responded. “All options are on the table.”

Jacques went on to say that not every local government was the same in Florida in terms of how reliant they are on property taxes to fund essential services. He mentioned that Largo — a city he represents — brought in $239 million in revenues last fiscal year, with only $39 million from ad valorem property taxes. And only 23% of that revenue was from homestead properties.

“I think that they can do just fine, especially when they look under the hood and make key priorities about what’s necessary and what’s not.”

However, some municipalities and counties in Florida rely heavily on property taxes to run substantial parts of their local governments.

“I look under the hood in the city of Tampa, our crime’s the lowest it’s been in decades,” said Tampa City Councilman Alan Clendenin. “This is not accidental, because we’ve had the investment in crime prevention in our police and our first responders.”

According to Tampa Mayor Jane Castor’s proposed fiscal year 2026 budget, every dollar of Tampa’s $380 million in property tax revenue is allocated to police and fire services.

Hillsborough County Commissioner Josh Wostal is a supporter of providing tax relief to owners of homesteaded properties in Florida. He floated his own proposal to get rid of all property taxes in the county and make up the loss of revenue by raising the sales tax in the county by 3.5%. He said the part of that could be subsidized by visitors.

“About 20-30% of people who [pay sales taxes] don’t even live here. That’s free money,” he said. “That’s relief for the fixed-income senior citizens and low-income citizens that own property that yes, while the more affluent people feel the sting of property taxes the most, the poor people and mixed-income citizens feel the burden the most because it’s ever increasing and inescapable. You can choose not to pay a sales tax. You cannot choose not to pay a property tax. “

However, state legislators working on the proposal say that a complete elimination of property taxes – while espoused on the campaign trail by Gov. Ron DeSantis and Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia – is not on the table.

“We can certainly talk about it,” Rep. Toby Overdorf, R-Palm City, co-chair of the select committee on property tax, told Spectrum News this week. “However, the direction’s that been given to me at this point in time is that the total elimination of property tax is not something that we would likely be putting forward in a constitutional amendment.”

‘A Tallahassee grab’?

No one on the panel was more critical of the proposal to reduce property taxes than Clendenin, a longtime Florida member of the Democratic National Committee. He said that it was absolutely critical that it fail at the ballot next year “because it will so adversely impact our first responders and the security and safety of our community and our state.”

But he received serious pushback by Jacques, who rejected Clendenin’s assertion that it was “a Tallahassee grab to seize power so that your local officials are no longer accountable to the citizens.”

“This idea that this is kind of a grab from the state — nothing could be further from the truth. If anything, it’s empowering to people of the state,” said Jacques, referring to the fact that it will be the voters who decide.

“If that’s a power grab, then I guess I don’t know the definition of that, because you’re giving the people the choice,” he added.

Meanwhile, Rep. Ryan Chamberlin, R-Belleview, like Jacques is a member of the House committee assigned to figure out what the proposed amendment on property taxes will look like, proposed his own “Freedom 1,2,3” proposal to reporters earlier this week.

“There is a political risk for me or anyone else who rolls out an actual plan, because immediately, there’s going to be those who organize opposition,” Chamberlin said. “It’s easy to talk about doing something about property taxes without ever getting specific about doing anything about it. But I’m convinced that we must have a starting point.”

Although local officials are critical of the idea, Gov. DeSantis and CFO Ingoglia continue to campaign around the state for the proposal. In Ingoglia’s case, his DOGE auditing team has been scrutinizing spending by some of the state’s biggest cities and counties and calling them out for what he alleges is unnecessary spending.

This week alone, Ingoglia travelled to Jacksonville and Orange County, where he accused both of those local governments of “wasting” $200 million and $190 million, respectively (local officials disagreed). The CFO said it’s important to call those local officials out now, so that they don’t start complaining next year that a reduction in property taxes will force cuts that could devastate public safety and other essential services.

The House Select Committee on Property Taxes is scheduled to meet Monday and Tuesday at the Capitol.

CORRECTION 09/25/25 5 p.m. Made clear in the headline that Clendenin pushed against eliminating property taxes, not reducing them.

Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.

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This article appears in Sept. 25 – Oct. 1, 2025.