Darren Sager

Governor DeSantis Holds Property Tax Relief Roundtable with Officials in Miami-Dade County xitter.gq/i/broadcasts/1MJgNbBMm…

Miami-Dade and Tampa budgets exploded, and now their mayors are standing with the sheriffs against your property tax cut. I back law enforcement, but these numbers don't add up.

The question of cuts is misleading . . . cuts but that is assuming we have some base line budget. What base line are they using - 2025? Assuming we use 2018 budget year (Osceola County as an example) and we index that for inflation and we eliminate all homestead tax revenue the county still would have $37,433,065,147.4 taxable base which is still $12,000.000.000 over 2018 and is significantly higher than inflation. (2018 value adjusted for inflation comes in around $26,518,000,000) Normally any county would be thrilled to have a taxable base that not only tracks for inflation but brings in a bonus $10,000,000,000 taxable base when comparing 2018 to 2025. Add to this is that the county will still receive homestead tax revenue so this number is even greater. This, now however is viewed a cut in services as opposed to a return to sanity. Amendment 3 will give new home owners an extra mortgage payment via reduced taxes and greatly assist working class, low wage earners and seniors who homestead. The math is not hard and the counties will still collect significantly more revenue then they collected in 2018 adjusted for inflation. Since 2018 what county service out paced inflation and why? What services were added since 2018? These two items would account for the glut of spending of excess tax revenue raised. Here are the numbers for my county. In Florida, the taxable value is the final value used by local governments to calculate your annual property taxes. Under Florida law, it is calculated as the Assessed Value minus any eligible exemptions (such as the Homestead Exemption) Osceola taxable value history states that in 2018 it was $25,399,524,923 and that rose to $57,589,330,996 in 2025. This is double in five years. In Osceola County, residential properties generally make up the largest portion of the total ad valorem tax roll, commonly accounting for roughly 70 to 75% of the county's overall real property taxable base, while commercial and other properties make up the remainder. Statewide, about 47% of residential parcels receive the Florida Homestead Exemption. Specific data for Osceola County mirrors this trend Using the above around 35% of collected tax will be subject to the Florida Homestead Exemption. That’s $20,156,265,848.6. If Homestead property tax was eliminated the county still would have $37,433,065,147.4 taxable base which is still $12,000.000.000 over 2018 and is significantly higher than inflation. (2018 value adjusted for inflation comes in around $26,518,000,000) With the Homestead property exemption rising there will be a further reduction but not elimination, The majority of Homesteaders will still be paying taxes due to high valuation of our property. Because I did the above research on assessed values of property I was curious on actual taxes collected. Here I just asked GROKG regarding taxes collected on homesteaded properties: "Comparison for the county government (BCC) alone, homestead property tax revenue rose from ~$23.7 million in 2016 to ~$103 million in 2025 — roughly 4.3 times higher. The homestead share of the county levy also rose (18.1% → 26.7%). That reflects more permanent residents claiming homestead, while Osceola still has a large non-homestead residential stock (rentals, second homes, new construction, investor-owned houses). Overall ad valorem collections more than doubled, driven by very large growth in just/taxable value, more homestead parcels and relatively stable millage (county general fund stayed at 6.7 mills)" Candidly I approached my inquiry thinking inflation was the driving force. Boy was I wrong. I would encourage you to do your own research and GROK is an easy tool to use to compare for city/county 2018 budget indexed for inflation to the 2025 budget.

🚨 Florida politicians say Amendment 3 will force cuts to first responders. But their lobbying bill has cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands. One lobbyist is the chairman at @MyFWC . Another’s daughter works as the Senate president’s scheduler. If first responders are on the chopping block, WHY AREN’T THE LOBBYISTS?

BREAKING: Federal agents raid Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar's Washington, D.C., home early Monday morning as part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation. Homeland Security Investigations agents arrived around 6 a.m., with both DHS and the Justice Department involved in the operation. The DOJ confirms agents executed a judicially authorized search warrant, but officials have not publicly disclosed the full scope of the investigation.

I’m not shocked that James Talarico was missing for twelve days on the campaign trail. Democrats don’t feel an obligation to show up for work. Joe Biden would go missing for stretches of time. You were bullied if you questioned his absence. Kamala Harris did not speak to reporters for the first 42 days of her campaign. She hid out from them and shrunk her press pool. The left does not feel they need to talk to working class Americans. Most Democrat politicians are elitist snobs who would rather not mingle with the masses.

🚨 A NUMBER THAT NEEDS TO BE INCLUDED IN THE AMENDMENT 3 BUDGET DISCUSSION: 10%. Beginning January 1, 2027, Florida law requires counties and municipalities to conduct a public budget-reduction exercise. Here’s exactly what that means: They must identify strategies to potentially reduce the next fiscal year’s budget by 10% compared with the current-year budget — without compromising essential public services such as law enforcement and fire services, or legal obligations. It does NOT require them to actually cut the adopted budget by 10%. It requires them to show, publicly, how a 10% reduction could be accomplished while protecting essential services. Counties: Fla. Stat. §129.03(3)(d) Cities: Fla. Stat. §166.241(3)(b) The exercise must take place at least 14 days before the final budget is adopted, and the government must post the exercise or a recording of the workshop online. Now look at why that matters to Amendment 3 projections. If a local government has a $100 million current budget and Amendment 3 reduces available revenue by $6 million, one calculation looks like this: $100M spending − $94M revenue = $6M shortfall But that assumes $0 of spending changes. Under the new law, that same government must publicly examine strategies capable of reducing the following year’s budget by 10% — $10 million in this example — while protecting essential services and legal obligations. That does not prove $10 million will actually be cut. But it does mean zero spending adjustment cannot simply be assumed. The relevant question is: How much of the projected revenue reduction can be absorbed through the spending reductions and reprioritization identified in that required exercise? Until that is included, you have modeled the revenue change. You have not modeled the entire budget.

The lying gaslighting of the public against voting Yes on Amendment 3 is on a whole new level. Wake up Florida! This is our only chance,no one other than DeSantis will bring this up again.