House poised to make it harder to increase property tax rates

Help may be on the way for homeowners, at least in the form of having it become slightly harder to raise their millage rates.

Rep. Sam Garrison’s CS/CS/HB 1195, which will be heard Tuesday on the House Special Order Calendar, would go into effect in July, imposing a supermajority requirement for any millage increase after this year should it become law and replacing majority rules in places that currently have them.

The bill is moving in the Senate also. Earlier this month, the Senate Finance and Tax Committee advanced Chair Blaise Ingoglia’s measure (SB 1322). The legislation now has one committee stop to go on the Senate side.

“Floridians are being hit with a one-two punch of increased property insurance rates and inflation. The last thing working families need is an unwarranted property tax increase too. Local governments have the power to raise property taxes, but they should only do so if there is a clear consensus that it is absolutely necessary,” Garrison said last month.

“Requiring a supermajority vote ensures this and provides an additional layer of protection to Florida’s taxpayers,” added the Clay County Republican.

Garrison has noted that in 2018, voters approved a constitutional amendment requiring a legislative two-thirds supermajority to raise taxes.

“We’ve honored the people’s will and operated under the constitutional premise that tax increases should only be considered as a last resort and require broad, oftentimes bipartisan consensus. This is consistent with our state’s tradition of limited government, low taxes and responsible fiscal stewardship.”

The original filing of the Clay County Republican’s bill contemplated a two-thirds vote in a referendum to be held during the General Election, but that version was withdrawn, and the language now aligns exactly with the Senate product.

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