In 2024, Delray Beach blew a $6.2 million hole in its budget plan with a politically attractive property tax rollback. The consequences were immediate and serious. One year later, two of the three officials who supported it reversed course and joined me in restoring a more sustainable rate.
Amendment 3, which will appear on Florida’s November ballot, would sharply expand the homestead exemption and reduce the property-tax base available to cities and counties. It would be far more consequential. Florida’s own economists project a $10.2 million loss for Delray in its first full fiscal year, $18.7 million the next and $27.5 million annually by 2031-32. This time, local governments across Florida would face that pressure simultaneously, through a constitutional amendment that cannot simply be corrected at the next budget meeting. That means enormous pressure on public safety, 911 response, roads, parks, and libraries.
What makes Delray a cautionary tale is not just the arithmetic, it’s the politics. The three commission members who backed the rollback had all just won elections in March 2024. They treated it as an extension of the campaign, a chance to claim a tax-cut victory before figuring out how to govern with less revenue.
Gov. Ron DeSantis is now running the same political playbook with Amendment 3: Tallahassee gets to claim credit for cutting property taxes, while cities and counties-along with renters, business owners, first-time homebuyers and others-are left to absorb the consequences. I was one of two commissioners who voted no. Our city manager proposed a smaller tax reduction he believed Delray could responsibly absorb. Our police chief, fire leadership, and department directors warned that the full rollback would affect services. Yet, the majority proceeded without a credible roadmap for replacing the revenue.
Read full opinion editorial by Rob Long on the Bradenton Herald