Florida’s 2026 legislative session began on Tuesday, January 13, with far-reaching property tax reform initiatives taking center stage.
That same day, property tax reform was also on the agenda at Palm Beach’s monthly Town Council meeting. Bob Miracle, the town’s deputy town manager for administration and finance, spotlighted several property tax bills with potentially drastic financial impacts for municipalities including Palm Beach.
Gov. Ron DeSantis and some legislators are pushing for property tax relief for homeowners who have been hit with soaring tax bills tied to the state’s explosive real estate market and population growth of recent years.
Property taxes are the largest single revenue source available to counties, municipalities and school districts, which rely heavily on them to meet their financial obligations and fund their services.
For the budget year that began October 1, 2025, the town of Palm Beach expects to collect $85.7 million in property taxes, or two-thirds of its $127.3 million operating budget.
Roughly 17 percent of the property taxes paid by owners in Palm Beach lands in town coffers, Miracle said. The remainder is paid to the Palm Beach County school district, Palm Beach County, and other tax districts.
Legislation
Miracle focused the council’s attention on four of the property tax reform bills before the legislature this session.
None of the bills would eliminate property taxes, he said. All would apply only to properties with a homestead exemption (owners are only eligible for the exemption if the exempted property is their primary residence).
None would apply to school districts, which would continue to rely heavily on property tax revenue. School districts receive between 30 and 50 percent of property taxes paid in Florida, depending on the county where they are.
To protect police and fire-rescue services, local governments would not be permitted to cut their public safety budgets to make up for cuts to their property tax revenue, Miracle said.
Any property tax reform passed by state lawmakers would be in the form of a constitutional amendment that would require approval from 60 percent of the Florida voters in November.
House Bill 201
This bill would have the greatest impact on the town of Palm Beach, Miracle said. It would eliminate all non-school property taxes for homestead owners. Almost 40 percent of properties on the island are homesteaded. This measure would mean the loss of 44 percent of Palm Beach’s property tax revenue, or $37.8 million.
Homestead owners in the town would save $2,611 per $1 million of taxable value in property taxes paid to the town, and a total of $8,550 per $1 million paid to all tax districts, according to an analysis by the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s office.
Homestead owners would still pay $6,321 per $1 million in property taxes. Non-homesteaded owners would save $0.
House Bill 205
This bill would eliminate homestead non-school property taxes for owners who are 65 years old and over.
This would take a big bite out of property taxes paid to the town of Palm Beach, which would lose $28.5 million, or 33 percent of its property tax revenue, Miracle said.
For property owners 65 and over, the savings would be same as it would be with House Bill 201.
House Bill 209
This bill would add an additional $200,000 homestead exemption from non-school property taxes for homestead property owners who have multi-peril property insurance, Miracle said. (Homestead property owners currently receive an exemption of up to $50,000).
This bill would reduce Palm Beach’s property tax revenue by just $1.8 million, which would be “very manageable for the town,” he said.
Homestead residents in Palm Beach would save $522 in property taxes paid to the town and save a total of $1,709 paid to all tax districts.
Despite its relatively minor impact on Palm Beach, House Bill 209 would cause significant property tax loss for Palm Beach County and municipalities with lower-valued homes and many homesteaded parcels, Miracle said.
House Bill 209 appears to have more traction with lawmakers than any of the other property tax reform bills, he said.
House Bill 211
This bill would boost the portability benefit of the “Save Our Homes” amendment by removing a $500,000 cap on accumulated tax savings that homeowners can transfer to a new home for non-school taxes.
The revenue impact to the town of Palm Beach would be marginal, Miracle said.
Worst-case scenario
For Palm Beach, the worst-case scenario would result from passage of House Bill 201, Miracle said. The loss of nearly $38 million in tax revenue would force draconian cuts amounting to 47 percent of the town’s $80.3 million non-public safety budget, Miracle said.
That could mean the elimination of nearly half of the 152 jobs paid for through the town’s general fund budget, Miracle said.
Potential impacts would include an across-the-board reduction in services, deferral of road paving and sidewalk replacement, and deferral or elimination of beach renourishments, sea wall replacements, landscaping services, and infrastructure projects, Miracle said.
Even though the public safety budgets would be legally protected from cuts, there would still be long-term impacts to police and fire-rescue services because of reduced incremental property tax revenue in the future, according to Miracle.
Miracle and Town Manager Kirk Blouin both said it’s unlikely that House Bill 201 will make it onto the November ballot.
Blouin said he doesn’t expect any of the bills to pass in their present form because the loss of revenue would decimate lower-income municipalities.
If any do pass, the town will have to research options to replace the lost revenue, including hiking the property tax rate on non-homesteaded owners; new assessments for town services; increasing other revenue sources, including parking, the business tax, and recreation fees; and outsourcing services to reduce impacts to the town budget, according to Miracle.
Miracle said the town and its lobbyists are closely following the legislative session. There is the possibility of new bills being introduced or tweaks to the existing bills.
DeSantis, who has spoken strongly in favor of eliminating or reducing property taxes, has not submitted his reform plan.
The last date of the regular session is March 13. DeSantis has floated the idea of calling a special session for April and May to tackle property taxes and potential changes to congressional districts.
“It’s a very open and fluid situation,” Miracle said.
Officials react
Council member Lew Crampton asked Miracle what town leaders can do.
“Advocate and inform,” Miracle replied.
Crampton categorized Tallahassee’s property tax reform effort as “political Kabuki theatre.”
“They’re all dancing around up there, feeding each other their ideas of what’s supposed to be happening, and they know relatively little,” Crampton said. “In most cases, they basically forget about where they came from and they go along with leadership, and leadership doesn’t care about us.”
Mayor Danielle Moore said every city and town in the state is carefully watching the unfolding tax reform drama: “It will have a significant impact on every municipality.”
She agreed with Crampton that the proposals now before legislators amount to “theater.”
“I do wonder if the people in Tallahassee actually live in their communities,” Moore said.
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