Bills barreling through this year’s Florida legislative session could eventually cause anywhere from a round of budgetary belt-tightening to an existential funding crisis in Tallahassee and other cities.
In fact, Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey said their passage could be a “doomsday scenario.”
The biggest potential budget-buster is legislation (HB 1195/SB 1322) that would require a two-thirds vote of a city commission to raise the local property tax rate. But that’s not all.
Others (HB 1277/SB 1510) aim to restrict general fund transfers, despite similar legislation failing last year. That means cities with municipally-owned utilities would not be able to boost their budgets with as much utility revenue as before.
Still other proposals look to increase homestead exemptions from $50,000 to $75,000, which would put more money in residents’ pockets — and less in city governments’ coffers.
The legislative push is part of what analysts call a red state crackdown on blue cities, an effort by Republican-majority state legislatures — including Florida’s — to make local governments, such as Tallahassee and Gainesville, do more with less and let residents keep more of their money.