By Ryan Gillespie and Stephen Hudak
Orlando Sentinel
(TNS)
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ plan to slash property taxes on Floridians’ primary homes threatens to hammer bedroom communities across the state.
Orange County cities and towns like Belle Isle, Winter Garden, Oakland and Ocoee would stand to lose between 25% and 33% of their total property tax collections if the plan to eventually reach a $250,000 homestead exemption is realized. But cities like Orlando, which collect much of their revenue from commercial centers and industrial sites, are much better positioned to weather the potential hit.
“I think we’re all kind of sitting back a little dazed and confused and concerned. Although ‘concerned’ is probably an understatement,” Winter Garden City Manager Jon Williams said Friday. “We don’t have that kind of capacity within our budget to be able to absorb that.”
Lawmakers this week will consider the proposal, which calls for a $150,000 exemption on homesteaded properties in 2027 and a $250,000 exemption in 2028. It also handcuffs cities and counties in terms of how they can spend tax money, limiting them to a short list of core services such as public safety, education, infrastructure, flood control, and retirement benefits for local government employees.
The proposal could be approved in its current form, tweaked or killed altogether in the planned special session this week.
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DeSantis’ long-sought plan—which would require voters in November to approve it with more than 60% support—specifically targets primary homes. So vacation homes, commercial and industrial properties would still be taxed. So while Orlando would see the largest hit in raw dollars if a $250,000 exemption was implemented, it would amount to about 10% of the city’s property tax collection, according to an analysis by Orange County Tax Collector Scott Randolph.
Meanwhile, a bedroom community like Belle Isle would lose a whopping percentage of its property tax base. The hit for that city of 7,000 would be 33% of its property tax haul, or about $1.8 million.
Williams, who oversees day-to-day business in his west Orange city of about 50,000, also wondered if the property tax reform would harm bond ratings, and impact Winter Garden’s ability to borrow money.
DeSantis and other state Republicans have contended that local spending has gotten out of hand in recent years, with cities and counties raking in more money every year due to rising property values, even if they don’t raise their property tax rates. The proposed tax relief, he contends, would be “transformational” and help tackle residents’ affordability concerns.
Yet the projected losses are worrying for such cities and towns, which already struggle with ever-rising costs on necessities like fire equipment, stormwater pipes and asphalt.
“It’s going to mess up a lot of stuff. If they do it the way they’re talking about, a lot of stuff’s gonna have to change,” Ocoee Mayor Rusty Johnson said.
With a $250,000 homestead exemption, Ocoee would stand to lose about $8.2 million, according to Randolph’s analysis, or roughly 32% of its property tax base. It has roughly 11,000 properties with a homestead exemption, according to data from the Florida League of Cities.
Money is already tight in the city of 52,000. Last year, Ocoee leaders more than doubled its fire fee to $139, which was expected to raise enough money to pay for about 34% of that agency’s budget. At the time, the fire chief of the fast-growing city said the cost of a new fire truck had essentially doubled over a 4-year period.
Nothing in the proposal so far limits local government’s ability to create new or hike service fees to buoy public safety and infrastructure needs.
Johnson, Ocoee’s mayor for 10 years, said city leaders want to kick around various ideas with other west Orange cities in the same boat. They may find themselves trying to share some services that each currently provides independently.
“You and I both know if that goes on the ballot for a vote, people are not gonna vote against it,” he said. “There’s no way we can survive with what we have to do.”
Photo credit: Lake Conway Estates Residents’ Association
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©2026 Orlando Sentinel. Visit orlandosentinel.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC.
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