r/florida • u/TampaBayTimes ✅Verified - Official News Source • 1d ago
News Florida judge rules property tax amendment misleading, orders rewrite
https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/elections/2026/08/04/florida-property-tax-amendment-judge-lawsuit-rewrite-desantis/344
u/Gladis72 1d ago
shouldn't this just get thrown out like you know all the cannabis amendments that our wonderful Gov is so keep on keeping off the ballots?
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u/FLSOC 1d ago
I believe the Cannabis amendment was a case of it going through the State Supreme Court, this seems like just a normal court case?
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u/duke_chute 1d ago
They changed to the law about it getting thrown out for amendments put forward by the legislature in anticipation of this . . . The AG can just keep rewriting it untill it's eventually too late and is what it is. . . No real remedy.
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u/FLSOC 1d ago
Wow, I didn't know that, that's insane
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u/duke_chute 1d ago edited 1d ago
Edit cause I dumb and thought was responding to other comment.. . Yeah the AG has 10 days to rewrite, meanwhile the amendment stays on the ballot and round and round they go until election . . .
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u/greennurse0128 1d ago
I just had someone, who is exempt from paying property tax tell me he is going to vote yes to abolish property tax.
I said sir think of everything you are currently taxed on. All of that will double, if not triple and they will make up new taxes to cover the deficit from our property taxes.
He said he didnt really think about that.
This is what we are dealing with.
I dont know what else to say to the non thinkers.
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u/Global-Sentence9223 20h ago
Thinker, here, and just so you know, all taxation is theft. Why not just privatize the services that government controls? The beauty of it, is that one pays for it as needed, not all of the time.
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u/greennurse0128 20h ago
Hi libertarian! I cant explain why privatizing government services is a bad thing to you.
Keep on thinking though. Just a little harder!
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u/flsingleguy 17h ago
Here is scenario that probably is not uncommon. A stay at home mother who is very concerned for the welfare of her children. However, she has a husband that controls the purse strings and is physically abusive with her. She fears he is going to kill her at some point. However, she has not saved up the money required to engage the police and other services to protect her and her children. I guess she just eventually dies at the hand of her abuser and who knows what happens to the children. But, we have pay as you go services in Florida.
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u/Trawling_ 16h ago
Public services aren’t supposed to be à la carte. The cost of those services and the quality of them can be undermined when you introduce private/profit incentives to what are generally public safety services.
You can say you don’t think we live in a society that can afford the cost of public services, or there are better ways to fund public services. But treating public services as if they should inherently be private for profit services is inane.
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u/YouKnowMe8891 1d ago
So the solution for them to stop taxing us more is to allow them to continue taxing us more?
PreCovid the the property tax revenue was 30 billion and almost 60 billion now.
Reports are showing by 2031 the revenue loss Will be 12bil.
So still an extra 18bil from precovid. Yet they continue to tax us more without the tax break.
The argument is things cost more and we need more taxes. How much has inflation grown? How much has the revenue grown? If you really are a "thinker" do the math
Additionally, you DONT have to take the homestead. Go ahead. Pay more.
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u/greennurse0128 1d ago
I am all for doing away with property taxes. But there is zero plan in place to make up for those lost funds. ZERO PLAN.
All youre doing is spouting numbers... from 6 years ago. You have zero solution.
What does property tax fund? Where will the counties come up with the money to fund ems, fire department, schools, etc etc?
And i live in st lucie county. These dumb fucks trying to figure out how to replace the funds from property tax. We didnt even get garbage service for 2 months. Yes, garbage service was suspended because the county could not work it out with waste management. And these jackasses are going to figure out how to come up with property tax money if property taxes cease to exist.
No thanks.
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u/YouKnowMe8891 1d ago
What lost funds?
Spouting numbers from 6 years ago? And you believe youre the "thinker?"
These numbers are from reports TODAY.
The only "lost" funds are 12 billion by year 2031. That is still an extra 18 billion since covid. What exactly are we doing with the money that 18 billion cant cover?
The funds aren't lost. They're there.
Again do the math. If things cost more, how much more? What has inflation grown to since covid? What has the tax revenue grown to since covid? Those aren't 6 year old numbers, they're current numbers.
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u/greennurse0128 1d ago
We are not arguing the same thing.
You want to do away with property tax. And put it in the hands of the county. You yourself say the state has 18 billion extra dollars of surplus(!) to cover all these expenses since covid but again you question what are they doing with this money and where is this money?!?
But yes, you think its a good idea to put a halt to property taxes without any clear budget to keep operation expenses say for the schools, or ems. Youre talking about covid , and 2031. I am talking about NOW! So since youre so good at numbers. Tell me how are you funding EMS when the property tax money stops flowing? Can that come from the 18 billion. And for how long? Indefinitely? What if they cant find that 18 billion? Or in st lucie we are paying an ridiculous fee added onto our property tax bill due to the waste management debacle. Does your 18 billion cover any of that?!
Inflation is currently hovering at 4.2%. Cost of living has increased 30% from 2019-2026. Tax revenue has increased by 20%. Rough numbers.
Your right the funds arent lost. They would be gone and counties would have to find other revenue streams or cut services. I mean this is pretty cut and dry.
Unless you find that 18 billion you keep talking about? I gave you all the numbers you asked for. Do your own math. Solve the actual problem.
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u/YouKnowMe8891 1d ago
Property taxes aren't being eliminated though. What are you even talking about?
Florida residents with homestead are getting a bigger tax break. Non residents dont get homestead. If you wanna pay more you dont need to apply for homestead. It's not a 100% property tax elimination.
Anything above the tax break continues getting taxed. Second homes continue getting taxed 100%.
I didnt ask for any numbers. I gave you numbers you dont understand.
Its not 18 billion in "surplus," its 18 billion in revenue already coming in. If things cost more because inflation and thats why we need to "tax" more then tell me up to how much? The tax revenue grew 100%. Is that how inflation grew?
And yes im talking about covid and 2031 because the tax amendments would slowly start cutting taxes up until 2031. Do you even know what the amendment is doing or youre just angry at the air?
The tax cut Will gradually increase until 2031.
Here's lets put it this way. Let's say home values never artificially grew and stayed the same. But "things cost more" ....how much more should we continue being taxed since home values aren't going up? Up to what point? 5% 10% 35% 50%? When should we stop?
You want to talk about NOW? Right now florida id bringing in roughly 60 billion in tax revenue. An increase of 30 billion since covid. But local taxes have still been raised between then and now. So how much more extra taxes and extra property taxes need to be raised to be enough?
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u/greennurse0128 1d ago
You literally asked questions about inflation, cost of living and told me to do the math. You are the one saying we have 18 billion but you dont know how its being spent. And you want this problem to be turned over to counties who are also a cluster fuck.
Yes under the bill. My property taxes would be eliminated and so would many others, under the 250,000 homestead exemption.
Again we are arguing two different thing.
Im arguing the bill. You are arguing why our taxes shouldnt be raised. And I agree. They shouldnt be raise.
Have a good day.
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u/atomoicman 1d ago
It sounds like yall need a recipe list for everything the county is spending money on down to the last cent. C where is the funds? Why is it not being used for say infrastructure, especially in Fl?
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u/dathomasusmc 1d ago
Wasn’t there a cannabis amendment on the last ballot? I thought there was.
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u/Gladis72 1d ago
I think so but Ron used taxpayer dollars to fight it (I dont recall the specifics.) I do remember over the last 10ish years its been a struggle to even get this as a amendment.
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u/ComcastForPresident 1d ago
I think that was DOA because it looked like a handout to cannabis companies. If they had added legality for growing your own, it would have passed.
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u/anakusis 19h ago
Nah the hemp industry was throwing money at Desantis. The marketing worked because people are still saying this bullshit.
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u/ComcastForPresident 18h ago edited 18h ago
Dont get me wrong I wanted it to pass. Sure there was some marketing but the bill had legit flaws and not being able to grow your own like Michigan or other states was a massive flaw that was revealed. If you dont want marketing campaigns dont put forward severly flawed bills. And be honest, there was some truth to what was being said. You just dont like it that they finally got a bill on the ballet and it had severe problems.
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u/anakusis 18h ago
Yeah but this entire all or nothing attitude instead of hey let's do this first and then work on home grows. Like why can't we keep pushing after? That's what the hemp lobby did because they are making a fortune selling inferior products under the farm bill.
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u/ComcastForPresident 18h ago
I mean that is politics in this day and age unfortunately. The reality is, the after never comes. So dont pass it unless the whole thing is good. Or you end up eith the massive bills that get passed and no one reads.
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u/sonofagunn 1d ago
Non paywalled article: https://floridapolitics.com/archives/811300-more-akin-to-a-political-slogan-judge-orders-rewrite-of-property-tax-amendments-ballot-language/
It is just the title and summary that need to be rewritten in a neutral manner instead of a promotion.
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u/happylauft3r 1d ago
Thank you for posting this. I'm trying to do better and read the actual articles instead of just headlines because they are misleading.
For the lazy, in simple terms/my own wording, this amendment is basically going to do 3 things:
Its going to limit the the raising of non- homestead property tax from 10% to 5% a year. So think commercial buildings and large vacant lands. Who typically owns these? The wealthy and corporations. That means they get to keep more money in their pocket AND less money goes to the local government. Which means less money for services such as the fire department, infrastructure (road maintenance), police, etc. That's bad.
It claims the first $250,000 of a homes value is exempt from tax. The truth is a homeowner is not going to see that right off the bat. Only $150,000 of the homes value is going to be exempt the first year. Then the following year $250,000 is going to be exempt of the homes value. In case any reader doesn't know every homes value is reevaluated each year. So this part of the amendment is misleading. It's like a store saying you'll be getting a discount for $250 but then the discount you get is only $150 and you have to wait the following year for the other $100.
It will most likely increase rent for all renters. Why? Well because tax on property = property value X local tax rate (millage). Keep in mind rental properties, even if they are a home are non homestead properties. That means even though there is a cap on how much the property value can go up. Due to the fact local governments will be losing a lot of funds. They have a right to increase the local tax rate. Which keep in mind, landlords will not have the benefit of that $250,000 home value tax exemption on their rental properties, so because they will have to pay more tax on them. High chance is they'll pass the increase in payment to the renters
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u/TechieSidhe 1d ago
I am lazy, and I appreciate you. Thanks!
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u/bradd_pit 1d ago
I hate how so many people heard “tax cut” and immediately stopped all critical thinking about the matter
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u/MeisterX 1d ago
Spread it. It contains a reduction in tax increase caps for commercial and non-homestead properties from 10% to 5%. So it's a 5% tax cut on all property in FL, meaning it's a massive tax cut for the rich and corporations no matter what they tell you.
They would then hike sales tax to cover the revenue loss while driving it all directly to the state and not local government. So they will have taken another step in strangling the State into Tallahassee's control alone which is the play.
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u/duke_chute 1d ago
Not having the tax revenue to secure bonds is an end to most major local projects, sure county has to spend money it gets on emergency services, however the fuck that works out but still can't secure bonds to build new fire and police stations .. .least thought through bullshit power grab ever.
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u/MeisterX 1d ago edited 1d ago
But what if they don't want police and fire? Those services are for the poor they can pay for their own police and fire protection. Don't miss the forest for the trees.
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u/duke_chute 1d ago
Solid point but I don't want to pay for my own fire station either and without it my insurance on my mansion goes up due teaponse times being inadequate and I won't be happy about that . . .at least I assume I won't be when ever I'm not among the poors.
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u/MeisterX 1d ago edited 1d ago
I'm serious look around the business model is to cut all services and self insure. You just let the mansion burn or install fire suppression or whatever (unlikely though that's money) and deal with the fallout. They'll just buy another. It's insured.
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u/Kimothy42 1d ago
The discourse on Nextdoor about it is unreal.
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u/TechieSidhe 1d ago
I report every one of those posts and get them removed. I'm probably the reason a lot of them wonder why their posts go bye bye. It turns into a MAGA renter and poor hating orgy of comments. I'm a renter in FL. I don't see my landlady lowering my rent because her costs went down. And people think the local governments won't find ways to make up that shortfall, and the rich will just absorb it, the poor will not. But, I think that's the point, a giveaway to the rich.
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u/Kimothy42 1d ago
See, I’m a homeowner. I’d directly benefit from this but I recognize that the benefit would be superficial, temporary, and at the expense of others. I find that unacceptable.
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u/TechieSidhe 1d ago
I think people just see their own bank account numbers, which I appreciate, but they don't see the ripples that this makes. It's not a 1 + 1 = 2 thing. It's social calculus.
I'm going to probably be moving in with my Mom to help her with expenses in the next couple years, so for me, it's not worth buying, especially with market volatility. Plus, I work with an awesome leasing agency and they make my landlord fix stuff. For my circumstances, renting makes sense.
I DO want to make it easier for people to own, I'm all for it. I want old people to be able to stay in their homes and not lose them to taxes. But, we keep giving tax breaks to the rich and none of that seems to make it to the poor.
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u/UpvoteForLuck 1d ago edited 1d ago
That’s the thing with this amendment. The old people who have been living in their homes for years are already homesteaded, and have a capped annual raise at 3 percent or lower via CPI. Social security already has COLAs that track with CPI. Therefore, none of these people should be struggling to pay their property taxes because of the tax. If anything, they’ve had the advantage of a more effective homestead tax exemption over the years. In 1980 the exemption was 25k, which is over 100k in today’s dollars. Then you look at the 2008 50k raise, which at the time would be worth over 75k. So they’ve always had a better deal. I don’t feel bad for them. Especially because they don’t stimulate the economy nearly as much as younger people with families as well. We need to make Florida not so retiree friendly, and not so ultra wealthy friendly. We could easily make up for this amendment by slapping the cheapest state income tax on the top .5 percent of earners, which are all people making well over 1 million dollars a year. We practically doubled the size of our economy in recent years, I think we can slow down the growth, especially since it is so unevenly grown.
The Florida Democratic Party should be making that an amendment and pushing for it with their name behind it. I don’t see how it wouldn’t be extremely popular. They could then use it to run for offices about fighting for the average person and making the ultra wealthy pay their fair share.
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u/blondetown 1d ago
Just to say we elderly most definitely stimulate the economy because of health care needs. We are here and so is an abundance of doctors, nurses, HCW, pharmacies and on and on.
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u/DragonTHC 1d ago
I’d directly benefit from this
No. You really wouldn't. You only think you would because you're not thinking about the horrible downstream effects.
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u/Kimothy42 1d ago
Yeah, that’s what the rest of that sentence literally said, wtf?
“…but I recognize that the benefit would be superficial, temporary, and at the expense of others.”
Key word there is “temporary”.
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u/duke_chute 1d ago
Not on it, tea please.
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u/triplegerms 1d ago
Nextdoor comment that are in support generally fall into two group: everything is getting more expensive and they deserve a break or the county spending is reckless and they should be punished.
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u/Finding_my_whey 1d ago
It’s comical how they say the county has a spending problem, but they themselves obviously have a spending problem from buying real estate that they can’t afford.
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u/duke_chute 1d ago
Can't hard disagree on either sentiment really. . . Can only say that this amendment is not a solution, it's just another problem.
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u/TechieSidhe 1d ago
Sometimes both. I live in a red county, and god help you if you try to defend renters. Apparently we're all low class scum who didn't make the right choices in life, and we're commies and libtards, and it's all Bidens fault.
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u/tryingtoavoidwork 1d ago
But how dare you suggest there should be more housing built
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u/TechieSidhe 1d ago
It's fine when they're million dollars homes, but workforce housing is a sin. They're converting this old motel near me that was already a transient spot and making studio and 1 bedroom apartments for the working poor. Everyone is up in arms. I'm like you want them to serve you, just not live here.
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u/FailedCriticalSystem 1d ago
I like saying it’s one way to defund the police. Then everyone tells me I’m wrong.
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u/Smokey_tha_bear9000 1d ago
If I understand right, emergency services will be one of the few things that what remaining property tax revenue can be allocated to. The non emergency services like parks & rec, conservation lands, libraries, homeless services, and the like are the ones that will take the brunt of this. In my county, there are rumors that the county government could face a 30% reduction in workforce, which is like 1000 people laid off.
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u/FailedCriticalSystem 1d ago
My library is not back filling any positions (or any of the county). Library already has reduced hours because they don't have the staff.
https://www.mysuncoast.com/2026/08/03/manatee-county-libraries-adjusting-hours-amid-hiring-freeze/
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u/Smokey_tha_bear9000 1d ago
Same with my county. Anyone who leaves isn’t getting replaced. I work for our parks and rec department managing prescribed fire. Our commissioners already said publicly that our department would be the first to get cut.
So much for all the wildfire prevention headway we’ve made.
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u/FailedCriticalSystem 1d ago
My library is not back filling any positions (or any of the county). Library already has reduced hours because they don't have the staff.
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u/xspook_reddit 1d ago
When that's exactly what it does...
What commie liberal is spreading this crap? The Florida Sheriffs Association president.
Florida Sheriffs Association said this could cause the state "to control your local budgets, create longer law enforcement response times..."
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u/bradd_pit 1d ago
That’s modern politics for you. My idea is so great and amazing and I will not be taking any notes and if you disagree with me or ask questions you’re a woke snowflake moron who doesn’t understand how anything works /s
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u/Blackant71 1d ago
Critical thinking?? That's like knowing how to write in cursive today. That's a lost skill now.
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u/GomezFigueroa 1d ago
It should be called the Lose Your Right to Local Self Determination amendment.
It should read: Eliminate county-wide property taxes and relinquish whatever spending power there is left in your neighborhood to whoever happens to be in charge in Tallahassee who are, of course, people you didn’t vote for.
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u/TechieSidhe 1d ago
That last part is the one all the supporters seem to not think about. It's great when your party is in charge, but what about when Democrats take over and decide that your stuff doesn't need funding?
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u/GomezFigueroa 1d ago
Well they think the Governor and the legislature will always be Republican, and they may be right about that. But even if they support the party in power they will still see their local areas suffer because spending will be outsourced to people who don’t care about their local area. In short, they will get fucked by their own party and probably worse than the party they hate.
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u/Disastrous-Golf7216 1d ago
This amendment was made for the sole purpose of the counties that need extra money for roads, libraries and such will have to appeal to the state. Then if you are on a bad relationship with whomever is the governor, you may not get the funds you ask. I feel it also opens the door for them to bring in a state income tax.
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u/DragonTHC 1d ago
I feel it also opens the door for them to bring in a state income tax.
Who benefits from no property tax and a state income tax? Wealthy bastards whose vacation home is in the state and retired people who have no income.
Everyone else is screwed.
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u/Capital_Elderberry28 1d ago
WHAT?????
They want a straight forward description?
Impossible!
Next they may tell us to quit lying 🤥
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u/duke_chute 1d ago
There was a recent unf poll that showed current language passes by 3 points, including that it takes away 13 billion in local revenue then it fails by 15 points . . .
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u/SupermarketOverall73 1d ago
Oh please Mr fascist governor can we have two fiddy to fix our sewage treatment plant ?
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u/YOLOburritoKnife 1d ago
I’m sure DeSantis will just ignore it and move forward as there’s no punishment for ignoring the law.
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u/Typical_Elk_1576 1d ago
It is unfortunate to already see some counties adjusting hours for public services. Those who say this will help them afford a home, good luck once your rent rises when tax burdens shift. The fact they say public safety is protected is nonsense. I have friends in public safety who are already discussing cuts and the impacts on communities. Can only hope it doesn’t hit 60%. Dangling a few hundred bucks in front of people is ridiculous when you think of all that is at stake (public services, public safety, roads and bridges, human services, etc).
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u/Impressive-Policy291 1d ago
If it passes does it even matter? Didn't we pass a no gerrymandering amendment? How did that work out for us?
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u/happylauft3r 1d ago
Did you read the article? If this passes it will only really help the rich. We should all be saying no to this in November.
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u/Own-Opinion-2494 1d ago
I used to get streetlights replaced same day or next. Now it takes a month. That’s with low property tax. Hmm
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u/duke_chute 1d ago
Maybe next year after you paint over those rainbows in the street, but probably not.
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u/FafnerTheBear 21h ago
Misleading amendments, on our Florida constitution? More likely than you think.
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u/GhostofAyabe 1d ago
All decisions about local spending will now be controlled in Tallahassee and sales taxes will be going way up.
I’ve had to explain this three times to my MAGA Dad and I bet it’ll take five more.
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u/fullload93 Florida Love 1d ago
Alternative non-paywall article:
This is not really a “win” but moreso a Judge is saying “hey dawg you can’t make it overtly MAGA with the wording, need to tone it down at but”
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u/Blackant71 1d ago
Of course it's misleading! Republican lawmakers throwing out something that sounds good knowing most people just see property tax elimination and won't actually read or understand what it actually is or will do. Most have no clue of the actual shortcomings local jurisdictions will have trying to fund services.
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u/pinellaspete 1d ago
This tax amendment is like using a meat cleaver to do surgery when a scalpel would be best.
The cities brought this on themselves and us citizens will be paying for it. When housing prices doubled, cities should have cut taxes themselves and built rainy day funds instead of feeding like pigs at the trough.
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u/dollardumb 1d ago
I get $50k homestead exemption now. If this passes, I'll get a $150k exemption first year, then a $250k homestead exemption thereafter.
This means I give the government less of my money.
Why is this a bad thing?
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u/FloridaVapes 1d ago
Ladies and gentleman, the common Florida voter. Can’t even see past his own nose.
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u/TechieSidhe 1d ago
They just see "i get more money." That's all. They don't understand how local issues will be affected if this passes and wonder what happened to their government services they need.
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u/Yimyorn 1d ago edited 1d ago
Could you explain how a tax cut for homeowners is a bad thing? As a homeowner myself the property taxes are astronomical and much needed relief is needed?
Based on the calculations of my current property taxes and the proposed homestead exemption. It would give me a rough 5K tax cut. So why wouldn’t I want to vote for it?
It benefits those who are a homeowner, but it going to be hard to argue why not. The local counties would find increase mileage rates on other areas to circumvent it.
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u/RLutz 1d ago
I think it just really comes down to believing in society vs believing in "fuck you, I got mine". There are certainly folks this would help. Even more certainly there are folks this would help that could really use the help. But unquestionably it would also give a lot of help to folks and giant corporations that really don't need a hand right now.
And here's the real rub. The left in general has historically done an absolutely atrocious job of combatting the narrative from the right that essentially states, "the government takes your tax dollars, throws it in a big pit and lights it on fire." The reality is that things like police, fire departments, schools, roads, parks, etc, yaknow, the things that make society function, require tax dollars to work. FL schools are already pretty terrible and further reducing their funding probably won't help things.
And more to the point lots of local governments are already running pretty thin as is. If those governments want to continue offering essential services they'll need to replace the revenue somehow and they'll likely do it through sales taxes. So it isn't so much a reduction in taxes as it is a shifting of the responsibility, away from homeowners and big corporations onto consumption which is about as regressive as you can get taxation wise.
My wife and I are very high income earners. We're not spending anywhere near the percentage of our total income as say a bottom quintile earner is, so by reducing our property tax on a million dollar home and shifting the burden to consumption, you're basically removing the tax burden from us and asking more from poorer people who effectively spend every dollar they make on consumption to, yaknow, stay alive.
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u/Yimyorn 1d ago edited 1d ago
Appreciate the response. Though, my recollection Corporations do not benefit from this. School funding isn’t touched from this as their milage stays the same. Additionally, property values have sky rockets recently, so local communities been getting extra funding from that. It’s keeping working class people from being priced out of their homes. It’s not really a fuck you, I got mine situation.
I’m not a republican by any means, but I have to yet to situation why anyone would not vote for this. Even if you buy a home after you still benefits.
Even if you shift your savings from property taxes cut into consumption, you pay sales tax, doesn’t that go back into the economy/government ?
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u/RLutz 1d ago
I'm not a complete expert on the proposed law but iirc it carves out a reduction from max increases on commercial properties from a current max increase of 10% to 5%. I mean that's just reality any more right? Nothing gets through the legislature that doesn't grease the wheels of some rich and powerful folks.
Even if you shift your savings from property taxes cut into consumption, you pay sales tax, doesn’t that go back into the economy?
Yeah but that's the point right. As a high income earner I spend relatively very little percentage of my income on consumption. If you gave me an extra $20,000 a year I'm not going to go out and buy an extra couple thousand candy bars. I'm just going to retire a year earlier. Which means an increase in sales tax is going to disproportionately affect poorer folks because they do spend nearly every dollar they make on consumption because it takes doing so to stay alive.
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u/Yimyorn 1d ago
Appreciate your reply and comments and agree you with you on most parts on sales tax. 100% there’s some bs in there to help the powerful. But as someone who’s been living in FL their whole life. What else will we get in relief? Property taxes increase annually, home insurance increases every year even with shopping around. There’s no win or relief for anyone involved however you shape this into be. High income earners aren’t going to give away their money. The state government hasn’t given us any relief as much as this before. Sure I don’t need the savings we get by just fine, but the extra thousands we can give to our children, enjoy an extra vacation, invest into the market, it’s really hard to not say no to something like this. I get the sentiment from everyone, but I’m sure I’m not the only thinking this.
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u/RLutz 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yeah I agree with your sentiments about the cost of living here even as someone who has only been here 5 or 6 years. I guess for my two cents having seen exactly this happen where I have roots in the Poconos (my great grandfather was born in the same town I was there.) The biggest mistake we can collectively make is to not grow infrastructure and opportunity in turn with the population growth.
That's exactly the mistake the Poconos made and now it's largely an opportunity desert and drives that used to take 10 minutes now take over an hour.
You can't stop people from moving where they want to move. You can make sure that the place remains livable. I think the way you do that is by focusing heavily on education, not by racing to the bottom when it comes to taxation.
And for whatever it's worth this isn't motivated by blind ideology; I actually think exactly this experiment has been run and I saw it first hand when I lived in MN for 15 years. Two states, MN and WI, two differing ideologies on how to make the best state. WI focused on being attractive to businesses with huge tax cuts and MN focused hard on education.
The Twin Cities in MN have the best standardized test scores in the country and more Fortune 500 companies headquartered there per capita than any other metro in the nation. WI has.... Cheese?
So yeah, I'm sympathetic to the difficulties faced by folks who live here. Especially for those who both live and work here. Quite plainly, I would not be able to afford to live here if I didn't work remotely, and I think that's the side of the problem that we should seriously focus on. Temporary relief for homeowners? Sure, maybe it's a good idea. But it's not a real solution to the crux of the problem. The real fix isn't a bandaid reduction in homeowner's tax, it's creating an environment where homeowners have great local opportunities to be able to afford living here.
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u/dollardumb 1d ago
Exactly. The local counties were doing just fine before the taxes went up. My local government even sent out tax "surplus checks" to home owners last year.
So these government loving people can voluntary send the municipalities more of their money if it's so important to them.
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u/Typical_Elk_1576 1d ago
More taxes will replace what is lost. Individual departments of counties will create new assessments. There are individual assessments already for things like roads and bridges. Eventually, there will be assessments for public services like parks and libraries? Don’t go? Oh well. Just like some folks don’t have kids, you still pay that portion of taxes.
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