{"id":6326,"date":"2026-07-03T08:03:54","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T08:03:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=6326"},"modified":"2026-07-03T08:03:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T08:03:54","slug":"commentary-property-tax-bill-helps-floridians-not-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=6326","title":{"rendered":"Commentary: Property-tax bill helps Floridians, not government"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The fatal flaw in Democratic and leftist thinking, and among far too many in government, is that any tax cuts \u201ccost\u201d the government money. We see this framing in debates from federal tax cuts down to the most local tax cuts.<\/p>\n

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But this rhetoric inverts economic reality, and is completely backwards in prioritizing government programs and bureaucracy over hard-working taxpayer\u2019s hard-earned money. The principle here is straightforward: money belongs first to those who earn it.<\/p>\n

Tax money is always made by the worker, then it becomes the government\u2019s by force of law. Government doesn\u2019t create one dollar. Companies and workers create it all and government then takes part of it.<\/p>\n

Of course we need government to provide the basics of what the private sector cannot. But we should always look at tax cuts first from the point of view of the taxpayer, from whom the money is being taken. Secondary is the impact on government and the question of where the government really needs it all. Government leaders have the habit of being incapable of cutting back spending, unlike the taxpayers from whom they are taking their money and often have to cut back.<\/p>\n

In the debate over Florida\u2019s proposed constitutional amendment to reduce the property-tax burden on millions of homeowners, a constant wording by the media and local government using their government social media is how much the amendment will \u201ccost\u201d each government.<\/p>\n

\u201cHomestead exemption increase could cost local governments nearly $12 billion a year,\u201d declares a recent headline in Florida Politics, representing dozens of such in the media, which mimics government verbiage.<\/p>\n

Much hand-wringing and scare tactics ensue, as the governments invariably list the programs most popular with residents that will be slashed. Because the government may actually have to \u2014 gasp! \u2014 cut spending, tighten its fiscal belt like the rest of us private citizens do regularly.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s probably worth repeating that local governments don\u2019t have any money except that which they must take from those of us who get up every morning and work all day to make it.<\/p>\n

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Rarely in the messaging through the media and government outlets is it mentioned how much money local governments are getting now because of the enormous rise in property values over the past five years. Those property value increases that local governments have gobbled up in their bulging budgets are a major part of the affordability challenges we\u2019re facing.<\/p>\n

A Florida TaxWatch analysis found that \u201cFlorida property tax levies have been rising rapidly \u2014 increasing by nearly 40 percent in just the last three years and more than doubling in the last ten years.\u201d However, inflation during the past 10 years was cumulatively 23% and population growth was 8.8%.<\/p>\n

Defenders of this being government money will say that their costs have gone up a lot and they have had to hire more employees to handle more people. Yes. Those are both captured in the inflation and population growth numbers which show much, much smaller growth rates than government spending. And never, ever mentioned in this debate \u2014 although incessantly mentioned in other contexts \u2014 those same inflation costs have hit the taxpayers\u2019 pockets too.<\/p>\n

And unlike local governments, their income did not rise anywhere near 40% in the past three years. In fact, it\u2019s less than a quarter of that at 9% during the past three years.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

There is no other way to look at the data: Local government budgets bloated in recent years as property values poured enormous amounts into their coffers from the pockets of Floridians trying to pay the monthly bills.<\/p>\n

And local governments did almost nothing to ameliorate their vast revenue increases by seriously considering the plight of those from whom they were taking the money. And a big reason for this is that they see the money as government money. It\u2019s not.<\/p>\n

Contrary to the constant phrasing that is seen on this issue, this is not local government money until the local government takes it from you and me. First and foremost, this does not cost local governments. It puts more money in millions of Floridians\u2019 pockets. And that will allow market spending to be more efficient than government bloat. And frankly, it\u2019s only fair to the hard-working taxpayers of Florida.<\/p>\n

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Evan Power is the chairman of the Republican Party of Florida.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the state’s Republican Party chairman writes, the proposed property-tax elimination won’t cost taxpayers, it will affect local government budgets that have become bloated in recent years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\nCommentary: Property-tax bill helps Floridians, not government - Orlando Relocation Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=6326\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Commentary: Property-tax bill helps Floridians, not government - 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