Tax plan: Big savings, major cuts
The Legislature is preparing to cut the average property-tax bill 7 percent this year, and then ask voters next year if they want to save far more by supersizing homeowner tax exemptions, under a plan Republican leaders released late Friday after weeks of secret talks.
Total cost to local governments over five years: $31.6 billion — a record tax cut.
But the big number includes $7.2 billion from schools and $3.1 billion from taxing districts that support hospitals, water management districts and children services. Those cuts could spell political trouble for parts of the plan among Democrats.
The complicated proposal would fundamentally change the property tax system by capping and rolling back government spending, while expanding homeowner tax exemptions from $25,000 to a maximum of $195,000. It also seeks to punish governments — including Miami-Dade County — that taxed and spent more than the statewide average during the real estate boom years.