This week on NewsNight, the Florida House rolls out bills aimed at lowering taxes on homesteaded properties.

We'll take a look at the proposals and discuss whether they meet Governor Desantis's demands to put the elimination of property taxes to voters next year.

NewsNight starts now.

[MUSIC] Hello, I'm Steve Mort welcome to NewsNight, where we take an in-depth look at the top stories and issues in Central Florida and how they shape our community.

First, tonight Florida lawmakers have advanced a sweeping set of proposal aimed at cutting property taxes.

Several measures filed by Hous Republicans are aimed at going some way towards meeting Governor Desantis's demands for an overhaul of Florida's property tax system.

Most would require voter approval on the 2026 ballot, setting up a debate in the upcoming legislative session over how to fund local services, and what such a shakeup might mean for homeowners.

>>Why would we exclude the portion attributed to to schools?

>>The legislature' been looking into the property tax issue during recent committee sessions, including a House Select committee set up by Speaker Perez.

>>41 municipalities and 67 counties.

And we're not seeing revenue go down at all.

If anything, it continues to go up.

Where is that money going?

>>There are now several proposals, most of which would require voter approval at elections in November next year.

Those proposals include completely abolishing non-school propert taxes on homesteaded properties, gradually eliminating non-school homestead property taxes over a ten year period, exempting Floridians aged 65 and older from paying non-school homestead property taxes, creating a new exemption equal to 25% of the home's assessed valu for non-school property taxes, adding a $100,000 exemption for homes with comprehensive property insurance coverage.

Removing the $500,000 cap on transferring accumulated Save Our Homes benefits when moving to a new home, limiting increases in assessed property value to 3% over three years for homesteads and 15% over three years for non homestead properties and making statutory changes, including requiring a two thirds vote for local millage rate hikes and allowing newly married couples to combine Save Our Home benefits up to half $1 million.

Save our homes, b the way, is a benefit that caps the annual increase in our homestead property's assessed value at 3 or inflation, whichever is less.

Well I spoke about the property tax proposals this week with Kimberly Leonard, who writes the Florida Playbook for Politico.

>>Governor DeSanti has been pushing the legislature to do awa completely with property taxes on main properties what are known as like homestead properties where people are living.

And that is not what the legislature, the House at least has given him.

Instead what they put together were eight different proposals that they say they're just going to pass on to the Senat and then have the Senate either narrow it down or pass them all and then say, hey, let's just let voters decide.

The problem with what they've put together is that a lot of the proposals are contradictory.

So one of them says that the, property taxes would only be zeroed out for seniors.

Another one says it's for everybody.

Another one says it's just, you know to be phased out over ten years, and they do not touch education, funds.

And again, that's different than what the governor has proposed.

But I think it does show that this when you start to write legislation on reducing or all out undoing property taxes, i gets really, really complicated.

And I think that's what we're kind of seeing now.

I mean, I had some people concerned that this meant that the House was actually trying to scuttle the entire effort.

I don't know if that's true, but it doesn't really seem like an opening bid that the governor will welcome, althoug he has not talked about it yet.

>>I noticed that the Senat hasn't weighed in on this yet.

>>That's right.

Senate President Ben Albritton hasn't said anything when we've asked his office whether he has a response.

And he also hasn' really given any specificities on, you know, what he would like to see out of property tax reform.

Look, this is an issue that when I interview people, comes up a lot.

The governor has made it an issue.

So this is something tha I'm sure, members of the Senate and the House are hearin about from their constituents.

I just don't really know where it goes from here.

They may all out reject it, they may start back from the drawing board, but it kind of seems like everyone's not on the same page.

And that's where it gets a lot harder to actually get something on the ballot.

>>You've reported on those tensions between the House, the Senate and the governor over property tax reform.

We saw some of those divisions, of course, play out in the last session particularly over immigration.

I mean, how do you assess the lay of the land?

Might we see some of those divisions reemerge?

>>Definitely.

I mean, I sort of thought during the two weeks of interim committee meetings that maybe things were calming down.

You know, we had seen President Trump endorse James Uthmeier for state attorney general.

And I kind of thought, okay, well, now the Republicans will probably, you know, back off a little bit on the Hope Florida investigation.

Maybe they'll, you know, just ease up some of the tensions that have been there just becaus they want to portray an idea of, okay, everyone's getting along.

But as I started asking folks, I was hearing the exact opposite.

One lawmaker texted me saying, this is just the calm before the storm.

And in fact, within an hour then we saw the plan on property taxes, which again was a surprise and was no what the governor had asked for.

So I do think it's going to be I think, first of all, the wounds that were created during the last session have not healed.

So those are going to reemerge.

But the governor is also looking at, I think, going out with a bang.

You know, this is going to be his last legislative session.

And the question, you know, he got so used to basically asking for things and getting whateve he wanted from the legislature.

And he still hasn't really adapted to one that has become, you know, more resistant or less willin to kind of go along with things.

And so it's been an adjustment for everyone to kind of say the least.

>>Kimberly Leonard there from Politico.

Well, let's bring in our panel now to break it all down.

And joining us in the studio this week, Kirstin Delgado, she's the one that gets up early in the morning to bring you the news on WFTV Channel 9.

Thanks so much for coming in, Kirstin.

>>My pleasure.

>>Good to see you.

Jeff Allen from Spectrum News 13.

Good to see you, Jeff.

>>Great to be here.

>>Thanks for being here.

And Stephanie Rodriguez from WKMG News 6.

You do a lot of stuff down in the county.

>>Yes, I'm happy to be here.

>>Good to see you, Stephanie.

Let me start with you, Jeff, on this one.

I mean, Spectrum News has been talking a lot about property taxes of late including these new proposals.

I asked Kimberly Leonard, so I'll ask you too.

What stands out to you from these proposals?

>>Yeah, well, our political reporter Jason Delgado, he's reall been there at the state House.

They've been working a lot.

And, you know, out of the session on this, House Republicans, at least the Senate hasn't dived into this quite.

But they basically developed a 37 person bipartisan panel to look into these proposals.

You laid them some of them out there right off the top.

There's eight of them.

A lot of them they have exemptions for school, the school taxe and funding for law enforcement.

So they all have thos in common, but they all kind of give people a break, on their homeowner's, property taxes in different ways.

One of them gives up to a 25%, one fourth of the worth of your home, break, which would be more than what we homeowners see now.

And one of them would give kind of a $100,000 off of the worth of the hom that you have to pay taxes on.

So it'll it'd be interesting to see which one of these kind of rises to the top as they consider all of these options.

>>Well, as you mentioned there, the Florida House has been digging into this, property tax issue in recent weeks.

The Senate is expected to do the same.

At this week's Orange Count legislative delegation meeting, lawmakers address property taxes, including the House proposals and concerns over what they might mean for local government funding.

>>We all know that these proposals impacting property taxes will have major percussions for emergency services, for fire.

For so many of the critical government services that are provided here.

We have to take our time to make sure that we fully researched this issue, get all the feedback from stakeholders.

>>This is a big issu for everybody, large and small.

Fiscally constrained, non fiscally constrained.

I think folks with an expectation that if we cut property taxes, it' going to get rid of their bill and we don't address required local effort.

Some folks are going to be ver disappointed because we don't.

And a lot of these proposals, that's a big deal.

Nothing that has been propose so far, prohibits a cost shift from municipalities goin to fees instead of from taxes.

We don't a lot of these create a permanent funding obligation for law enforcement, but I think it's just such a large issue.

And it's so complicated in the state of Florida that we're we're still getting input from everybody.

>>Jason Brodeur there.

Kirstin, WFTV has obviously covered this issue of property tax cuts and what it might mean for government spending, particularly for emergency services, law enforcement, other items that local governments pay for.

It looks like law enforcement funding would be protected in these proposals.

But generally speaking, what is the governor's call to cuts?

Waste, waste, waste.

Right.

He's, set about the CFO Blaise Ingoglia to really focus on the wast in Orange County specifically, there was an audit.

We're still waitin on the findings of that audit.

But he was saying to the tune of, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars are being wasted.

And frankly, this isn't a partisan issue.

You do have even Democrat coming out and saying, you know, hey, listen, like there's an issue here, this is an exorbitant cost to what you're asking homeowners to do.

And so, as you mentioned, I know that Scott Randolph even said, you know, 25% would be a huge help for these families.

And when you look at the state of the economy, I think for the average person, they're going, oof, that bill is rough but on the other side of that, how are we going to pay for these necessary, things that w need in our in our environment?

Right It is necessary infrastructure.

You know, I don't want potholes outside of my house.

Right.

So those things are going to start coming up if we don't actually talk to dollars and cents of where the money is goin and who's going to pay for it.

>>Well, let's take a listen to to Scott Randolph.

We'll play another clip from, this week's Orange County legislative delegation meeting.

Scott Randolph, of course, the Orange County tax collector had this to say.

He's a Democrat.

>>Local governments property tax revenues are exploding because in the last 5 or 6 years, right.

Property values have exploded as well.

But if you've been in your home before that time, your property taxes have been protected by Save Our Homes.

I've lived in the house I've lived in for the last ten years.

My property taxes have gone u less than $1,000 in ten years.

If somebody purchased that home this year, they would pay double what I pay in property taxes.

The issue I hope the legislature focuses on again, isn't the total budget.

It's the fairness issue.

And Florida cannot continue to push property taxes onto new homeowners, whether they be new retirees from other states or whether they be young people trying to buy their first home, or whether they be people, you know in the middle of their career, coming to Florida for a new opportunity.

If we don't address that fairness, we will kill the housing market.

It happened in 2007, 2008.

>>Scott Randolph, there, Orange County tax collector.

Well, Kirsten just mentioned it a second ago.

I talked with Kimberly Leonard about this.

We'll put the full interview up on our website.

But this doesn't necessarily seem to be a partisan issue.

Right.

Property taxes.

>>No.

Yeah.

I mean, you have you have bipartisan support on this, but you almost have a division within the Republican Party in Florida between the governor and lawmakers as far as how far they want to go with this.

These lawmakers are proposing these different those eight different proposals.

I don't think they go a far as the governor wants to go.

The governor, you know, wanted these breaks even in last year's legislative session.

It looks like they've gotte serious about making something, something happen here.

But will it be that far enough for the governor?

He really wants just across the board.

Homeowners do not really have to pay anything from from if you listen to how he's talked about this issue.

>>Yeah.

Well, local government do seem pretty nervous about it though, right, about cutting or potentially eliminating property taxes.

News 6 actually put together a really interesting look, this week, what these reform will mean, for local counties.

What are you guys finding?

And what do we hear from counties broadly about this?

>>Well, as we can imagine, I mean, every county is going to have to look at the money that they get in from property tax because no two counties are alike.

So some counties might have more homesteaded properties than other, or they might have more commercial properties that wouldn't benefit from this tax reform.

So that's money that these counties could still rely on, that other counties potentially could not rely on if they have less commercial properties that wouldn't benefit from the tax reform.

So they have to really look at how much money they'r getting in from the properties that would be exempt, potentially, from paying property taxes, and figure out how they're going to still pay for those required services, like you mentioned, that they have to do legally and that the community wants to see and that they are accustomed to.

So we're hearing a lot of counties say that, you know, they won't be able to provide that level of service that they're accustomed to and that they want to provide to the community if they don't have those revenue dollars to rely on.

>>Of course, mayor Jerry Demings in Orange County has talked a lot about, well, we need this extra revenue because we've seen such an increase in population.

It's interesting, isn't it, Jeff, that, school taxes are exempt from this.

The governor hasn't talked about that being something that he wants.

>>Yeah.

I mean, in fact, he's you know, obviously they've opened up, you know, the vouchers and charter schools and that spending and even now, they're floating possibly allowing, you know, even, school property to be taken up by private, you know, educational facilities, you know, so it's something that, you know, he doesn't agree.

He doesn't feel like schools are, you know, necessarily the right public schools are the right answer.

And obviously, he's opened up other options.

So I don't think the governor's necessarily going to want to see that school exemption if this comes down to it.

We could be looking at a special session here.

If it doesn't go as far as the governor wants.

>>Yeah.

And a property taxes and millage rates, they make up such an important part of school districts budgets.

>>Especially when you talk about not only school district budgets, but you're also talking abou the unintended consequences of, people.

It's already difficult enough for the average person to afford a home.

And now you might have rents go up as a result of this because of the fees for apartment buildings being impacted by this, potentially all of us being impacted, whether you're a homeowner or not or a renter, with sales tax potentially being, an optio to, to kind of meet this need.

So it's impacting everyone, whether you like it or not, whether you own a home, whether your rent, it's, you know you're going to go to Walmart, going to buy a banana and it's going to cost you $0.10 more, you know.

>>And to add to that, the Department of Revenue is reporting that right now, 29 of 67 counties in the state of Florida can't afford the bills that they have with the property taxes that they're getting in right now.

So that's going to leave them even more in the hole-- >>Fiscally constrained counties that that's correct.

I mean, sometimes lost in discussion.

And I'm glad that case brought brought this up is is the effect on on homeowners and their pocketbooks.

I wonder whether we know how the public actually feels about these proposals, about the idea of property tax elimination.

>>That's a great way to put it.

People like the idea of not paying property taxes.

There was a recent survey done that found that 65% of Floridians are in favor of tax reform, and they would vote yes on the ballot if it came before them during an election.

Again, they like the idea of it.

About 40% of those peopl surveyed said that they do agree that property tax is a vital or necessary form of revenue for the state, but they do feel that it should be limited in some capacity.

And we got kind of an understanding as to why they would be on board with property taxes being removed or some reform there, because those same 65% are worried that they won't be abl to continue living in the home that they currently ow because of rising property taxes or rising housing costs.

>>Yeah, it's really sad.

I think if you ask people if they'd like to pay less tax, generally... >>The answer's yes >>The answer is generally yes.

I wanted to wrap up this segment by talking about another bi cost, that affects homeowners.

And that, of course, is insurance here in Florida.

The governor discussed the issue this week.

Spectrum News 13 has been looking at what lawmakers are considering on insurance for the upcoming session.

Do we know what, and do we know how the governor feels about it?

>>Yeah.

You know, homeowners like you just said, those cost insuranc is another big cost they have.

I mean, they're just looking for a relief somewhere.

The governor has already kind of put out the salvo and said, hey, don't mess with what we've been doing.

The governor, the legislature the last two cycles, they have their attack on reducing insurance costs has been by trying to get more insurers back into the state, especially when you look at homeowners insurance and they feel like they've been able to do that by reducing the ability for people to sue these insurance companies.

A lot of people see that as, oh, you're just giving the insurance insurance companies a break, but they feel like that's been able to get more more companies in here, more competition, keeping those costs down.

In fact, the governor has touted what he says is historic, reductions in auto insurance breaks.

And so he's saying, hey, lawmaker don't mess with what we're doing because he feels like it's working.

>>Well, we'll see what lawmakers do when they get to Tallahassee in January.

You can find links to the proposals from the Florida House on property tax reform on our website to read for yourself.

It's all at wucf.org/newsnight.

Okay.

Next tonight, immigration Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visite Florida this week in Bradenton.

She pushed for stronger immigration enforcement and praised recent ICE operations in the state.

Meanwhile, Florida is readying a third immigration detention center, this time in the Panhandle.

The site, dubbed Panhandle Pokey, is expected to also hold detainees as part of Florida's effort to aid in the Trump administration's deportation effort.

Well, last week on the program, we discussed how communities near Alligator Alcatraz viewed the facility there.

So what about the other site, Deportation Depot, that's currently open in the small community of Sanderson in Baker County?

I spoke after the facility' opening with Sara-James Ranta, a reporte with our public media colleagues at WUFT in Gainesville and Fresh Take Florida, who visited Sanderson to find out how residents there felt.

>>I think a lot of them fel that they were left in the dark, right?

Whether they were, you know, told by me when I approached them or whether they had seen it on Facebook the day before I reached them.

A lot of the community members were looking for some sort of local reaction, asking me lik if the local county government had said anythin or if they were involved in it.

So I just feel a lot of th residents were were sideswiped.

Some residents were worried about what would happen if someone escaped.

That was kind of the core safety reason when I had asked, well what are your safety concerns?

Well, I'm worried about what would happen if someone escaped and the othe half of them were worried about, you know, the potential criminals.

I mean, data from Syracuse University shows that over 70% of people nationally, who are, you know, detaine in these immigration detention facilities lack some sort of criminal conviction.

So, you know, from state policy, you know, they're hearing, I mean, even locally amongst the community, they're hearing that, you know, all of these detainees are criminals and that and that they're dangerous.

And now this is really being brought to their forefront in their backyard.

So the safety is not only surrounding their proximity, but it's also, surrounding the detainees themselves.

>>Sara-James Ranta from WUFT and Fresh Take Florida, Kirstin let me come to you first on this one.

WFTV reported on the Homeland Security Secretary's visit to Florida this week.

What did she have to say about the sort of federal state cooperation that we've been seeing over recent months?

>>Well she really held a Florida as a shining example of cooperatio with the Trump administration.

And she said that Florida is the most, a state that's enforced this the most that's the 287G program.

That relationship between local law enforcement being able to act as as ICE agents.

And she also made the additional point to say, you know, we're going after criminals here.

That's the focus of these operations, per the Trump administration.

And in this case, we're bringing justice to these families associated with these crimes, whether it be drug cartels or murderers, whatever.

You know what may be, whatever the case may be.

And so for them, it was for her it was an example of not only Florida's doing the right thing and really doing going above and beyond of enforcement, but also bringing justice to families.

As the comparison she was making.

>>I mean, the state has been getting, Kirstin mentioned those 287 programs.

The state has been getting a chunk of money, because of its cooperation with the federal government.

>>A very large chunk of money, Steve, $28 million.

And then tacked on top of that is another $10 million for law enforcement.

So, you know, no surprise that when the state announced that they called it a historic agreement there, and as Kirstin mentioned, you know, Florida's really, really cooperating with the 287G right now.

There's 325 agreements with local law enforcement agencies here in Florida to do the 287G program.

>>Yeah, they've really embraced that.

And we talked a lot on the program about Alligator Alcatraz.

I think you and I have talked about it, Jeff.

I mean, do we know though much about these plans for a third site in the Panhandle?

I think Spectrum News has been covering that.

>>Well, you know, the state has not been exactly forthcoming with advanced details of the new facility.

I mean, Alligato Alcatraz seemed to come out of, you know, was just kind of put up very quickly.

So not a lot of details.

But we do know that basically the state and and the governor says we need another location and we know how large Florida is.

I mean, it's, you know, from the Keys to all the way up to the Panhandle a many, many hours a day, they feel like they need just another regional site.

They have one in the South Florida.

They have one in North Florida, but they feel lik they need one in the Panhandle, since they call it Panhandle Pokey.

Just to kind of help with the processing of these individuals, throughout the state.

It's just geographic.

>>I mean the governor has talked a lot, hasn't he, about the nee to help the Trump administration with these plans or efforts because of the what he would describ as the disastrous implementation of immigration polic under the Biden administration.

But do we get an idea about how many migrants have been coming to Florid during the Biden administration?

Do we know how the state has been affected in recent years by that?

>>Yeah.

Well, State of Florida officials, the governor, they have said they actually have the most in the country, more than California in New York, other two other large states, than anybody else.

And so they feel like they have the most, to that they process through here.

They've seen that already through their work, through Alligator Alcatraz, the people that they've processed those migrants.

And so they feel like this is something they're ground zero basically for what they see as a problem coming out of that last administration.

And they that's why they feel like they need to continue and expand their efforts.

>>Yeah.

You've covered the immigration issue extensively this year, particularly those court fights Stephanie over over temporary protected status affects a lot of Venezuelans and Haitians in Florida.

Do we know where things stand for the Venezuelan community at the moment?

Legally?

>>Yeah, absolutely.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court granted an emergency, a request that was filed by the Trump administration to block a California judge's ruling that found that Kristi Noem, you know, didn't follow the proper process when she repealed and revoked TPS for Venezuelans.

So a major win there for the Trump administration, as they're continuing to push to make sure that, you know, Temporary Protected Status is not an option available for Venezuelans anymore here in the state.

You know, they say it's it's alway meant to be just that temporary.

But of course, advocates tha I spoke to, you know, they say, hey, this is putting us at risk.

We don't want to return back to Venezuela.

It's not a great political climate.

And then they call out hypocrisy and say, the Trump administration knows that things are bad in Venezuela, and yet they still want to send us back there.

So now, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who previously had work order, work permits, excuse me, and protection from deportation are now left without that.

>>And of course, a lot of discussion at the moment about what the Trum administration might be planning for the Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro.

I mean, do many people in Florida now fear the risk of deportation?

>>For Venezuelans specifically, we're talking about 600,000 across the United States.

Half of that number, roughly, is here in Florida.

You're talking about folks who work in health care and infrastructure.

And so there's also this kind of underlying impact of what about the impac to the economy as a result of-- >>The tourism industry.

>>Right.

If you really get rid of all these people and send them back not only is it a safety concern, but it's also a concern to ou local economy within the state.

Right.

So it doesn't go into effect immediately.

But this new ruling, as yo mentioned, does allow the Trump administration to go down this path.

They have the free way to do so.

And so it is a concern.

And, you know, it's one that a lot of people are watching closely.

>>And of course, major theme park operators are going to be watching to see what happens because they've been reliant on on TPS labor, up until this point.

Many Venezuelans on TPS, of course, are pursuing other immigration remedies.

I guess, asylum is one of those things.

You actually recently spoke t a Venezuelan asylum recipient.

>>Yes.

So she's been here for ten years.

Her and her family.

She is now a realtor.

She was actually a psychologist.

She had a degree in Venezuela.

She was working, her and her husband had a thriving life in terms of career.

However, the economic situation around them wasn't, a situation they could handle anymore.

She gave the example of, even though she actually had the money, which is an issue.

But for many people, for her it wasn't.

She had a career, she had the money.

She went to buy her daughter milk.

She said she stayed in line for about three hours to buy the milk.

By the time she got there to the front, there was no milk left.

So now you have a shortage of nutrition.

I couldn't feed my daughter I had the money to pay for it.

I couldn't feed my daughter.

That was kind of the last step for her.

And she moved here.

She got asylum and now she's a realtor.

She couldn't use her degree here of course.

And so she was a babysitter.

She did Uber Eats, she did everything under the sun.

And finally, became a realtor and is having great success even in this economy.

With that.

So just goes to show that, the American dream is alive and well if you truly work to pursue it.

But you do need that level of entry, right?

You do need that asylu in order to to get to her point where you can have a successful life here in America.

>>Obviously immigration is going to continue to be a big issue, bot at the state and federal level.

Be sure to find us on social media.

Meanwhile, we're at WUCF TV on Facebook and Instagram.

You'll also find us on X, @NewsNightWUCF.

But that is all the time we have for this week.

My thanks to Kirstin Delgado from WFTV Channel 9, Jeff Allen from Spectrum News 13 and Stephanie Rodriguez from WKMG New 6.

Thanks, guys for coming in.

Really appreciate it.

Good conversation today.

We'll see you next Friday night at 8:30 here on WUCF.

In the meantime, for all of us here at NewsNight, take care and have a great week.