Economic Implications of Florida’s Proposed Property Tax Amendment

On January 29 of this year, Floridians will vote on a proposed constitutional amendment to reform the state’s property tax system. This proposal arose in response to widespread and growing dissatisfaction with the state’s current system of property taxation. Residents’ complaints about the tax system may be that total taxes are too high, that the distribution of taxes is inequitable, that high taxes on business make Florida uncompetitive, or that the current system “locks” owners in their present homestead properties. In “Economic Implications of Florida’s Proposed Property Tax Amendment,” the Economic Analysis Program at the University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research takes a look at the effects of the proposed reform on each of these complaints. They find that the proposed reform will generally have no impact on the first, will seriously exacerbate the second and third, and improve only the fourth.