Escambia County leaders are taking a hard look at their budget in the event voters approve the state Property Tax Reform referendum during the 2026 General Election in November.
The proposed constitutional amendment would, if approved by voters, raise homestead exemptions from the current $50,000 to $150,000 in 2027 and to $250,000 in 2028. Property taxes to fund public schools would remain intact, but revenue for counties and municipalities would drop sharply.
According to Escambia County staff, projections show approximately $40.1 million in lost revenue in year one and about $59.2 million in year two in lost revenue for the county’s general fund. Last year, Escambia County’s general fund included $348 million.
The West Florida Public Library would lose approximately $3.1 million in revenue in year one, and about $4.5 million in year two.
Commissioners discussed the potential impact during their Committee of the Whole meeting on June 17.
Escambia County budget cuts under consideration
Escambia County Administrator Wes Moreno said county departments have been asked to cut 10% to 15% out of their budgets without affecting delivery of services.
They’re considering several strategies to save funding and put money in county reserves as they move forward with the goal of using those reserve funds if needed for the next budget cycle.
“As aggressively as we can and with the least amount of pain as we can, we are discussing strategies,” Moreno said. “We have some low hanging fruit, and we have measures we can take. We are discussing sharing those with the board and we’re hoping to pull back $21 million hopefully to put it back into reserves.”
Where those cuts and savings will come from is where the friction starts.
The county is considering eliminating or decreasing the general fund portion allocated to community partners, which is currently “a little over a million dollars annually.”
County departments are also being asked to look at their vacancies and consider hiring freezes.
Another strategy is possibly reducing the CRA (Community Redevelopment Agency) Tax Increment Funding (TIF) contribution from 75% to as low as 36%. County staff say that could generate an additional $3.2 to $5.2 million for the general fund.
Commissioners pushback on reducing CRAs
However, this proposal was met with strong opposition from some commissioners, who expressed concern about impacting the poorest communities.
“These are the poorest people in our community that we’re helping, the absolute poorest people that we’re putting money back (into their community), so we’re going to take from them?” Commissioner Mike Kohler said.
Commissioner Lumon May also said he would not support that as an option if it were presented to the board to decide.
“If that’s a board decision, it’s a bad decision,” May said, “because when you look in the pockets of private CRA’s, we still have people flooding. They don’t have sidewalks. They don’t have lights. There are neighborhoods where it’s horrific.”
Property Tax Reform pushed quickly through legislature
Commissioners questioned if legislators considered the impact the Property Tax Referendum would have on local governments and public services when they agreed to put the issue on the ballot in the General Election.
Chris Dawson, who works for GrayRobison, the law and lobbying firm hired by Escambia to represent county interests to the state legislature, said there wasn’t time for a detailed discussion because Gov. Ron DeSantis called a special session and the proposed property tax bill was pushed through within two days.
“One of the downsides of legislating through a special session is it’s a very small, truncated window of time where policies are considered,” Dawson said. “I think, for example, that the property tax bill that went through special session a couple weeks ago was released on Friday. It was heard in committee on Tuesday, and passed the legislature on Wednesday, so it’s a very short time to get into the weeds.”
He said if voters approve the referendum in November, the legislature would have to revisit the issue to provide more clarity on specifics like defining core public services, calculation of the rollback rate, the impact on CRAs and their bonded debt, and the need for greater flexibility for local governments in using sales tax and Tourist Development Tax revenue.
“It’s going to push local governments, thereby our constituents, to begging for money out of Tallahassee to a much greater degree than the representatives have currently dealt with,” Commissioner Steven Barry pointed out.
Soaring property insurance rates still an issue
Commissioners also asked if the legislature discussed dealing with crippling property insurance costs, which many elected leaders and constituents, locally and across the state, say is of greater concern to their pocketbooks and cost of living than property taxes.
Dawson said legislators had “no appetite” to discuss it this legislative session, but there may be more serious discussion with the new incoming Florida Senate President Jim Boyd, an insurance and investment firm owner.
“I know that’s a tremendous issue for our organizations and our homeowners,” Dawson said. “They get the home that they’ve always wanted and then the insurance is several thousand dollars a year and seems to continue to go up.
“I think it’s largely going to be left to the community to include that in the property tax conversation and to differentiate whether one form of relief is appropriate over the other.”
What happens now
The board did not make a final decision to move forward with any specific cuts during the meeting.
Commissioners generally agreed that discussing specific budget cuts was “premature” and that the detailed “list of things” should be saved for a future budget workshop.
“It’s great to have this conversation, but there are just so many unknowns about what’s going to happen,” May said, “and none of us really know.”
Mollye Barrows is the Escambia County Government Impact Reporter at the Pensacola News Journal. She can be reached at mbarrows@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Escambia stands to lose $59.2 from budget if property taxes are cut
Reporting by Mollye Barrows, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
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By Mollye Barrows, Pensacola News Journal | USA TODAY Network
