Looming property taxes remake could shut down small cities

Written by Miami Today on April 29, 2026

As Miami-Dade scrambles preparing for potential loss of a large chunk of its property tax revenues as the result of a special state legislative session, it has a compounded fear: would smaller cities, towns and villages disappear with those revenues?

Commissioners voiced those fears last week, but at a distinct handicap: all eight competing property tax plans offered in the Florida House this year died when the session ended without the Senate joining in. Now, the spotlight shifts to a legislative session to rework property taxes – but that session has yet to be called, with no idea what would be considered.

Nonetheless, the county was urged to be ready for drastic changes in tax revenues that most likely could get legislative support.

The county, Commissioner Vicki Lopez recommended, should “start to make some move to estimate or investigate, research, some proposal.”

One lurking danger, she said, is that a bill could pass to eliminate property taxes on people who hold homestead exemptions. That could have life-threatening implications in the smaller cities in the county that have no commercial base to tax and derive a large percentage of their revenues from property taxes from homesteaded residents.

Of the county’s 34 municipalities, she said, “some of them have no commercial base.” As a state senator she had represented the Village of Key Biscayne. “At 30% reduction [in homesteaded tax revenue] – they’ve run their numbers – they would have to fold back into the county.”

Losses of such smaller communities, she said, would have implications for the larger county as well. “That’s going to mean more services we have to provide for people, people we currently don’t provide services for. There is a ripple effect across the board for municipalities, particularly the smaller ones that would be most impacted because most of their revenue comes from homesteaded properties. You have to start looking at places where we will have to pick up the slack … if municipalities have to roll back into the county.”

Small communities across Florida see peril in property tax changes. Indialantic in Brevard County is looking at dropping its police call center and merging services with the county. Miami Springs officials talk with concern about their dependence for 70% of their property tax revenues on homesteaded properties and what that loss could mean. Some property tax proponents during the legislative session acknowledged that proposed changes would kill off smaller cities.

The discussion last week focused on what property tax changes being showcased as reforms would do to the county government itself.

“I’ve been channeling my inner Teddy Roosevelt,” said Commissioner Juan Carlos Bermudez. “How are we going to pay for things in a democracy if we do not have taxes?…. There are no free lunches in a democracy.”

Ms. Lopez suggested that the county focus on the property tax change proposals most likely to pass in the legislature and then with the voters in a constitutional amendment. She said that in current polling, proposals receiving 80% favorable ratings are those offering relief from property taxes for people 65 and older, “which, quite frankly, are the people that need the relief the most.”

Ms. Lopez suggested the commission direct Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to estimate the impact to the county’s general operating revenues if the legislature were to move to eliminate taxes on homesteaded properties owned by persons 65 and older. She suggested two separate analyses: “one that secures school taxes and one that does not.”

In looking at the impact on the county, Chairman Anthony Rodriguez noted that the administration already has make some analyses. “We have services to comply with, which are responsibilities that we have, not necessarily our choices.” He cited cutting the grass, paving roads, public and low-income housing – “the list goes on and on.”

The mayor said the county has been studying “these different proposals and we’ve looked through various scenarios.”

“I think we’re in a little bit of a guessing game, and I’m hoping to read the tea leaves – what’s polling, what’s not – but in essence there is no way to predict what will happen,” Ms. Lopez said. “I think the next step is to find out what the governor’s thinking when he calls the special session – if he calls it. But it will significantly impact us.”