Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis, Boca Raton Mayor Andy Thomson and Broward County Property Appraiser Marty Kiar hosted an event in South Florida where they made speeches opposing cuts in Florida’s property taxes, because of course they did.
Trantalis told the crowd of more than 40 business leaders, attorneys and real estate agents property taxes fund 45% of the city’s day-to-day operations, with more than half of Fort Lauderdale’s budget — 62% — pays for police and fire service. The claim is how every dime in taxes is essential, property taxes only come from owner occupied property, and any cuts to those taxes will result in less service from police and fire.
The misdirection is 45% of the city’s day to day operations is in itself a bit of a lie. He is pulling a stunt that excludes sections of the budget in order to hide the real monetary picture here. By saying “day to day operations” he is talking about only one section of the city’s overall budget. The day to day operations he is speaking about is the city’s general fund. The mayor’s fuller statement says that approximately “48 cents of every General Fund dollar” comes from property taxes, but the General Fund is only 43.5% of the city’s $1.194 billion adopted operating budget. So “property taxes fund nearly half of the city’s day-to-day operations” is a way of hiding a narrower fact: property taxes fund less than half of the General Fund, and only about 22% of the city’s entire annual spending.
That distinction matters because many genuine day-to-day city operations sit outside the general fund:
- Water and wastewater
- Sanitation
- Stormwater
- Parking
- Airport operations
- Building services
- Internal-service operations
Those activities are primarily supported by utility rates, service charges, assessments and other dedicated revenue, not property taxes.
The city has a total annual budget of $1.194 billion. Of that 1.2 billion, homestead property taxes are only $79.8 million, or about 6.6% of the city’s budget. The remaining roughly $185 million in ad valorem revenue comes from non-homesteaded residential, commercial, rental, industrial, and other taxable property.
So to boil things down- the loss of all ad valorem revenue from homestead property would cause the city to lose less than 7% of their total budget.
What impact would that have? Let’s take a look at the city’s total budget for the past 5 years.
| Fiscal year | Total adopted expenditures | Year-over-year increase | Year-over-year % |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY 2022 | $897,744,024 | — | — |
| FY 2023 | $985,053,597 | $87,309,573 | 9.7% |
| FY 2024 | $1,071,928,055 | $86,874,458 | 8.8% |
| FY 2025 | $1,193,279,369 | $121,351,314 | 11.3% |
| FY 2026 | $1,194,366,687 | $1,087,318 | 0.1% |
In the past five years, the city’s budget has grown by a total of 33%. Even eliminating all of the $80 million in ad valorem revenue from homesteaded property would leave Fort Lauderdale with roughly $1.115 billion, which is still 4% above its FY 2024 budget.
Amendment 3 wouldn’t even go that far. The median value of residential property in Fort Lauderdale is about $486,000. The amendment would increase the homestead exemption from $50,000 to $250,000 over a two year period. This would have the effect of reducing the taxable value of the median homestead property in Fort Lauderdale by 46%. In other words, Fort Lauderdale would see a 3.6% reduction in their overall annual budget as a result of Amendment 3.
Sources
Mayor’s public statement to social media on spending and taxes
9 Comments
Grumpy51 · August 19, 2026 at 9:03 am
Old country saying – “How do you know if a politician is lying?” If his lips are moving, he’s lying.
Fred · August 19, 2026 at 9:50 am
Government is not our friend or our ally… The desire to get away from government is what drove the westward expansion of America. Death by Indians, starvation, illness and accident was not enough to deter people from escaping government by leaving. That and the opportunity to create their own place in life. I do believe that government has caused more death and misery than all the pestilence, famine and illness combined.
Georgiaboy61 · August 19, 2026 at 2:27 pm
The sneaky tactic government employees pull when tax revenues are threatened or spending cuts are proposed, is to cut “essential services” first, i.e., police, fire, teachers, public works, etc. – and never trim the bureaucracy payroll to cut costs. It’s a form of arm-twisting and they have resorted to it time and again – often successfully, one might add.
pcb_duffer · August 19, 2026 at 3:55 pm
One question I’d like answered: Of all the parcels in Broward County (or any of the other 66 counties in Florida), what % currently have the homestead exemption? As I understand it, only the ones with homestead exemption in place will get this tax cut. So all the beach condos owned by outsiders see no change. Neither do any housing owned by investors – single family, apartments, condo / townhouse, et cetera. Neither does any commercially owned property – office buildings, gas stations, Wal Mart, on and on. So the tax cut is of a fairly small part of the tax base.
Divemedic · August 19, 2026 at 5:42 pm
I took that into account by only including homesteaded property.
pcb_duffer · August 19, 2026 at 8:14 pm
Thank you for doing that, but I’d still love to see the county by county breakdown. “In Orange County (Orlando, for those of you not in Florida) there are X parcels in the system. Of those, Y are protected by the Homestead Exemption law. The total taxable value in the county is $N, and the taxable value of the properties with Homestead Exemption is $Q.” I want to confront the politicians with cold hard numbers. (Or a brick, but the brick is the second stage.)
Stealth Spaniel · August 19, 2026 at 10:56 pm
I remember as a child, visiting the 2 aunts that had moved to Florida. Florida was exotic, had strange creatures, and people were very friendly. Both of my aunts had those “Florida” rooms that were startling pink, full of rattan furniture, and enclosed because of the gators. It all seemed like Disneyland to me. Fort Lauderdale was a where a lot of kids from the midwest went to party but then it was so tame as to being embarrassing. 2 of my male cousins got locked up for underage drinking and their parents acted like it was a major downfall where their entire future had turned into Satan’s fire hole. I remember a lot of adult conversations but honest-to-God, Florida was considered cheap and fun and every adult wanted to be there. Progress has not been kind. Too many foreign floosies, grifters, and thieves have turned paradise into failure. Less government at any level is always a better answer!!
nones · August 20, 2026 at 5:17 am
My wife and I live in a homesteaded house. We also have a condo that my wife inherited from her mother. We rent it. Taxes on the condo are north of $5400/yr. If the taxes are decreased on our home I expect to see the taxes on our condo to go up by the same amount or more.
Divemedic · August 20, 2026 at 6:12 am
The Florida constitution limits all ad valorem taxing authorities to 10 mils.
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