South Florida residents and mayors fear "grave consequences" from Gov. DeSantis's property tax proposal

Governor DeSantis is pushing to eliminate property taxes for homesteaded properties. While many applaud the proposal, cities are chiming in, wondering what will happen when they lose that income.

Jason Pearl said he pays around $20,000 a year in property taxes for his Fort Lauderdale home. His interest is piqued by the governor's plan to eliminate property taxes for homesteaded properties.

"I am broadly in favor of it, with a massive caveat that it cannot come at the expense of, you know, the essential services that people rely upon," Pearl said.

That is the same concern many South Florida mayors have.

Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis warned of grave consequences, noting that nearly half of the city's budget is funded by property taxes.

"Where are we going to get money for parks and recreation? We're going to have to close down our entire parks department. Okay, no more parks. Public works people, there's a sewer line or a water line that's broken. Forget it, nobody's going to be working. We can't, we can't repair it," Trantalis feared.

Trantalis called the proposal a political tactic that ignores the realities of running a government. "I think it's a cheesy tactic to try to gain some sort of political advantage, but it has nothing to do with the realities of how to run government," he said.

Mayor Trantalis is afraid this could lead to others paying more. He warned that the tax burden would shift to new residents and businesses.

"We're going to have to tax these new high-rises with all the young people that are renting these apartments. All the rents are going to go up, so we're going to lose all the young people coming into our cities. The rents for businesses will have to go up too," Trantalis warned.

While Pearl would love to see his taxes go down, he says the devil is in the details, and he wants to know how this all would shake out.

"If there's too much cutting, absolutely, yes, they would have to find another way. Maybe there's a happy medium at that point," Pearl said.

The special session begins Monday. If the legislature approves the plan, it would go to voters in November, who would get the last word.