Florida property tax cuts threaten to flatline public safety funding

Leaders of the Florida House have said they want to insulate public safety from the effects of proposed cuts in homestead property taxes but until recently left firefighters and emergency services out of the equation.

So far, the House has changed three of the seven ballot proposals approved last year by the House Select Committee on Property Taxes, adding just recently fire departments and emergency services, which are largely funded through property taxes.

But there’s a catch.

While the new protections would prohibit local governments from cutting public safety budgets below current levels, they do not account for rising costs in future budgets. The measures do not include mandates to cover future increases in expenses such as salaries, pensions, or equipment, but hold the funding to FY2025-2026 or FY2026-2027 levels, whichever is greatest.

“It’s going to be a muzzle on firefighters’ ability to be able to respond, to … effectively provide the public service they provide if we hold them to 2025 or 2026 levels,” warned Rep. Ashley Viola Gantt, a Democrat from Miami-Dade, one of several Democrats who had been pushing for the addition of fire and emergency services to law enforcement protections in the ballot proposals.

It is unclear if the remaining five proposals, which already contain protections for law enforcement, will be similarly amended. The Senate has largely taken a wait-and-see approach so far.

Gov. Ron DeSantis began his push to reduce property taxes through a constitutional amendment last year. He has not released a specific proposal, instead lobbing criticism at the many legislative attempts to craft a ballot proposal to his liking.

While both he and Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, who also serves as Florida’s fire marshal, have repeatedly said that public safety is the highest priority, neither has offered specific legislative language to protect future public safety funding while eliminating the very property taxes on which the funding largely depends.

“Without safeguards in place, any reduction of revenue will disproportionately impact the emergency services that protect life and property,” said Florida Fire Chiefs Association President Tripp Barrs during a House committee meeting on the constitutional amendment proposals last year. 

And while the recent addition of public safety to two of the proposals may offer some assurances to firefighters, warnings were sounded early in the process about the potential dangers of property tax cuts.

“[Firefighters unions] don’t want to get on the wrong side of Republican leadership. But they’re getting screwed in the long term.”

Rep. Angie Nixon

“Public safety, apparently, is the No. 1 issue. That’s what we all hear about when we go home. If we take property taxes away, we’re going to rob public safety,” said Rep. Philip Griffitts, a Republican from Panama City Beach, in a September committee hearing on the tax reform issue. “We can’t take away our public safety. People move to Florida because we are a safe state.”

Asked last month about the lack of a guarantee for increased public safety funding in the amended proposals, a spokeswoman for CFO and State Fire Marshal Ingoglia wrote: “The CFO has been consistent in his message that law enforcement, fire rescue and other first responders are the FIRST thing that local governments should be funding.”

For Florida’s firefighters, how that promised funding will materialize and whether their ranks could be thinned as a result of property tax cuts has been an exercise in waiting and seeing.

A major funding loss?

The governor first floated the idea of eliminating taxes on homesteaded properties in early 2025, touting it as a way to address affordability, but quickly raising alarms among local government representatives about what would replace such a major funding loss that pays for everything from police and fire to roads, libraries and parks. There were also fears that the financial burden would shift heavily to commercial and non-homesteaded property owners and renters if homesteaded properties were eliminated from taxation, or that sales tax could more than double to make up for the revenue loss.

In response, lawmakers passed legislation during last year’s session which included authorizing $1 million for a comprehensive study of the issue, including how the missing revenue could be replaced or cuts could be made at the local level.

The governor vetoed the money, saying a study was unnecessary.

Soon after DeSantis appointed him CFO in July, Ingoglia teamed up with the governor’s “Florida State Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) patterned after Elon Musk’s controversial federal DOGE and began what he has called audits of select municipalities and counties across the state.

He rebranded the state DOGE “Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight,” or FAFO, and as the Trident first reported in September, soon launched a quest for hundreds of thousands of dollars and additional personnel to establish FAFO as a new agency within his sprawling bureaucracy, the 2,000-employee Division of Financial Services.

As he pivoted from one press conference to another, Ingoglia, who is running for election as CFO this year, skewered local government officials for “waste, fraud and abuse,” and blamed uncontrolled spending by local bureaucrats for escalating property taxes.

Concentrating his criticism primarily on examples of “wokeism” or “DEI” initiatives, Ingoglia has accused local governments of collectively overspending more than $1.8 billion in revenue. He dismissed as excuses local government claims that the spending can be attributed to such factors as inflation, population growth, and rising personnel costs including law enforcement which, as of 2023, was the highest among the top 10 largest budget expenditures for counties as a percent of total expenditures, according to Florida’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research.

In Palm Beach County, for example, Ingoglia accused local officials of overspending $344 million in 2025, and called the county one of the worst he’s seen. He said his cuts would lower the millage rate by 0.55, saving the average homeowner with a property assessed at $600,000, $331 per year, about 91 cents per day. A homeowner whose property is assessed at $800,000 would see savings of $441 per year, or about $1.21 per day. All without impacting essential services, he insisted.

But Ingoglia offered no specifics about those cuts, nor did he question public safety spending, which at 22% of the budget is the county’s largest expenditure. In just one year, the spending for public safety had risen 11.9%, “primarily related to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office budget request and 145 new positions for the Fire Rescue,” according to the county’s “FY 2026 Budget Fact Sheet.”

For FY 2026, the sheriff’s budget set a record at $1.084 billion, almost half of the $2.167 billion in Palm Beach County’s FY 2026 property taxes, much of it going toward salaries, overtime and insurance.

It should have been more, Ingoglia claimed. “The sheriff’s budget is $11 million under what it should have been,” and “they have held the budget in check.”

Responding to Ingoglia’s overspending claims, Palm Beach County Administrator Joe Abruzzo questioned his methods and findings and noted that the County would be unable to continue to provide the many services mandated by the state or necessary for all county operations if the $344 million claimed by Ingoglia as excessive was cut while holding the Sheriff’s office harmless.  

In Seminole County, Ingoglia retreated from his accusations in October of overspending by county officials of $48 million.

Ingoglia’s claims followed an earlier vote by county commissioners to raise the property tax rate, citing the rising expense of insurance, and law enforcement salaries, among other factors. In a press release, Ingoglia slammed the increase as a way to finance a “large bloated budget.”

“That’s why property tax reform is so vital,” he said. “Seminole County’s refusal to listen to the taxpayers is as tone-deaf as it is bewildering.”

‘These are not luxuries’

Seminole County quickly fired back, noting in a letter to Ingoglia not only rising state-mandated expenses such as jail operations and state retirement contributions, but the rising expenses of other essential services including the funding of its five constitutional officers’ budgets.

As in Palm Beach County, the largest of these budget categories is law enforcement, according to Seminole County data.

“Public safety is one of the largest cost drivers and the area most affected by inflationary pressures unique to government operations,” wrote Jay Zembower, who chairs the Seminole County Board of County Commissioners. “Sheriff’s Office deputy pay has increased 60% since 2020 to remain competitive in a constrained labor market. Police cruisers now cost 56% more than five years ago. These are not luxuries; they are essential tools of governance and public protection.”

Ingoglia quickly backpedaled. “Thank you for providing additional insight and context regarding your budget and your budget process,” he wrote in a brief, four-paragraph letter to Zembower, adding, “No further action on your part is necessary. Please continue looking out for the taxpayers of Seminole County.”

 “This is the biggest ‘bro, just trust me’ that I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Rep. Ashley Gantt

“I think it’s a smokescreen for what people are really worried about — property insurance, utilities and the cost of housing,” said former CFO Alex Sink, a Democrat, who said Ingoglia’s attention should be directed closer to home, such as the millions of dollars in no-bid contracts doled out under the governor’s on-going emergency orders.

“How do you implement this?” she asked of the cuts Ingoglia is pushing. “Who’s going to make up the difference and where’s it going to come from?”

Questions on how any tax reform legislation will be implemented, who will pay for it, and whether firefighters and emergency services will get the same level of protection as law enforcement have frustrated Democrats during committee hearings on the amendments.

“This is the biggest ‘bro, just trust me’ that I’ve ever seen in my life,” quipped Rep. Gantt of Miami-Dade during one such House committee meeting.

Facing carve-outs for both schools and law enforcement, county and municipal representatives are raising similar concerns.

The loss to local governments and their general funds would be substantial. If all of the proposed amendments were approved by the required 60% of voters, the impact would be $25 billion in the first year, and $35 billion recurring, according to the state Revenue Estimating Conference.

“Generally, statewide if law enforcement takes up to 50-60% of revenue, and 40% is eliminated because of homesteaded ad valorem, there is nothing left” for county services, said Cragin Mosteller, Director of External Affairs for the Florida Association of Counties, adding that in some counties, “there’s not even enough to protect law enforcement.”

In counties where separate taxing units known as “Municipal Services Taxing Units” have been established to pay for fire services, they too depend largely on ad valorem taxes levied separately.

Jacksonville Rep. Angie Nixon, a Democrat whose daughter is training to be a firefighter, warned during a December House State Affairs Committee meeting on HJR 201, which eliminates all non-school property taxes for homesteaded properties and could result in a recurring impact to local government of up to $18.3 billion, that the measure holding only law enforcement harmless could result in usage fees for fire or EMT services. “So, you’re saying lower one tax structure and increase in another taxing structure?” she asked the bill’s sponsors, Reps. Monique Miller and Kevin Steele, both Republicans and members of the Select Committee on Property Taxes. “In some cases, that may be the case,” replied Miller.

Lamar Stegall, the fire chief for Williston, a Levy County city with a population of 4,500, told House State Affairs Committee members that 33% of the EMS budget for Levy County comes from property taxes. The budget for Williston’s fire department, which also serves Levy County, receives 40% of its funding from property taxes, he said.  

“We can talk about assessments and MSTUs,” Stegall said, adding that property insurance rates may rise if fire services are negatively impacted. “All we’re doing is robbing Peter to pay Paul. At the end of the day, you’re looking at, especially in rural counties, devastating what will happen to our fire and EMS.”

The lack of certainty in funding protections for public safety, and what happens if the exemptions leave law enforcement, schools, and fire and emergency services fighting “over the same sliver of pie,” as one opponent noted, hasn’t deterred some firefighter unions from lining up behind Ingoglia’s CFO candidacy, citing past legislative efforts on their behalf.

“You don’t want to get on the wrong side of Republican leadership,” wryly noted Nixon of the union backing. “But they’re getting screwed in the long term.”

As CFO, Ingoglia has not yet backed any of the constitutional amendments currently proposed, nor has he publicly announced any legislation or amendments of his own to ensure that all of public safety be protected.

But Ingoglia has begun announcing his legislative priorities for the 2026 session, which include a bill codifying his new FAFO in statute as a permanent addition to state government. The legislation is backed in the House by Miller, who is also the sponsor of HJR 203, yet another constitutional amendment which would gradually eliminate all non-school property taxes over a 10-year period.

This article first appeared on Florida Trident , an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization run by the Florida Center for Government Accountability, and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Michelle DeMarco is an award-winning investigative reporter who returned to journalism after more than two decades in public service. Contact her at demarco@flcga.org. 

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This article appears in Jan. 28-Feb. 3, 2026.