In a departure from Gov. Ron DeSantis’ property tax plan, a House committee approved an amended bill Monday that protects school taxes.
“Schools are exempt — period, full stop, end of story,” Republican Rep. Sam Garrison, who is in line to be the next House Speaker, told the House State Affairs Committee.
Garrison argued the carve out was needed to protect schools, which “don’t have that luxury” to raise fees.
“Schools don’t have the ability to be nimble and flexible like local governments do. And that’s why this amendment specifically withdraws our K-12 public education,” Garrison said.
Without Garrison’s amendment, schools would lose $5 billion a year in funding under DeSantis’ plan, according to the Florida Policy Institute.
With Garrison’s change, the House State Affairs Committee advanced HJR 1F one step closer to put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot. DeSantis is seeking to raise Florida’s homestead exemption from $50,000 to $250,000.
If anyone was expecting House Republican pushback to DeSantis’ call, it never came during Monday’s Committee meeting. DeSantis has infamously been at odds with House leadership the past two years.
The House Committee approved HJR 1F with a vote of 20-7 down party lines with no House Republicans moved by the emotional pleas from Democrats and local officials on the implications of such a major restructure of Florida government.
DeSantis needs 60% of lawmakers in each chamber to pass the initiative to get it on the ballot. Florida voters must also back it by 60% for it to succeed.
Critics slammed DeSantis and the Legislature for a three-day Special Session where the House version of the bill wasn’t filed until mere hours before the first Committee stop. Debate among lawmakers during the three-hour hearing was cut short Monday.
“You are fundamentally changing the basic governing structure of the state of Florida,” AFL-CIO Director Rich Templin said. “And yet I feel like this is like when one of my kids turns in a book report when they started it the night before and turn it in at the last minute.”
Last year, DeSantis vetoed $1 million for a study on the potential impacts of eliminating the property tax in Florida, adding to the opponents’ frustrations the plan was rushed.
Public comment on DeSantis’ plan was overwhelmingly against it.
One dissenter said, “You will become the fee state of Florida,” mocking DeSantis’ “Free State of Florida” slogan.
Marina Morgan, President of Florida Library Association, warned libraries would lay off staff, reduce hours and cut programs for families and children under DeSantis’ plan.
“The impact would be immediate,” she said. “And these are not hypothetical outcomes. They are the direct result of removing the funding that keeps libraries open and accessible.”
Florida League of Cities President Holly Smith warned, “One person’s exemption is another person’s tax increase.”
“This is not a tax cut. It is a tax shift,” said Smith, councilwoman for the city of Sanibel. “When homesteaded properties come off the tax roll, the cost of services, they don’t disappear. It shifts to businesses and non-homesteaded properties,”
Templin described it as “’Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith’… kind of thing happening right now where the state is going to assume massive control over all 67 of our counties and all of our municipalities.”
“That is not conservative, that is not small government, that is not Republican,” Templin charged. “That is nothing that the majority has ever stood for. And yet that’s what’s happening right now. And there’s no compelling reason to do it.”
The minority Democrats’ amendments to protect funding for libraries, public safety, water management districts from the proposed funding cuts all fell short during the meeting.
“I find it disingenuous to offer scare tactics. Like if we proceed with this, services for our veterans are going to disappear,” said Republican Rep. Tyler Sirois as he argued nonprofits and philanthropists exist to support veterans after one amendment failed.
The latest House version of the bill said ad valorem taxes levied by counties and municipalities can be used for any expenditures approved by such county officers to set funding priorities, Republicans said.
“This means that libraries are funded, animal welfare, veteran services, nonprofits are all funded in accordance with however the county wants to spend their money,” argued Republican Rep. Toby Overdorf, who sponsored the bill.
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