Flagler Sheriff Rick Staly Calls Property Tax Proposal 'Politics'

Flagler Sheriff Rick Staly expressed his skepticism with a ballot measure this year that would phase out most property taxes in Florida. The sheriff explained his reservations during a presentation to the Palm Coast City Council on Tuesday. The state legislature this month approved a measure for the 2026 ballot which would phase out property taxes over the next several years. If approved, county and city governments would lose out on an enormous revenue source. Supporters argue this could help eliminate government waste, while opponents worry about the ability of local governments to continue essential services. "It was politics," Staly said on Tuesday. "The [state] leadership won't even be there when this goes into effect, they're not having to deal with it." Staly then implored the City Council to wait for voters to make their decision before making transformative changes to the city budget. He also called for voter education to raise awareness of exactly what the ballot initiative would cause to happen. "I think it's up to the city and county leadership organizations to educate the public so they can make an informed decision, not a decision based on a paragraph that sounds really good," Staly said. While the legislature wrote language into its bill exempting public safety agencies from being defunded in the fallout of the ballot measure's potential passage, it did not write in explicit protections for services which are run collaboratively by several municipal governments. Perhaps the most vital local example is Flagler County Emergency Management. It is not protected by the initiative, meaning the ability of the county to respond to natural disasters such as hurricanes would hinge on how well they could support the department with a greatly diminished budget. If passed, the first phase of changes would take effect in the 2027-28 fiscal year. The Florida Office of Economic & Demographic Research this month estimated that local governments would lose around $5 billion in revenue that first year. In successive years the estimate grows to $8.8 billion, then $9.7 billion, $10.75 billion, and $12 billion. Outgoing Gov. Ron DeSantis has long been a champion of dismantling property taxes in Florida, and he called the special session that led to this measure reaching the 2026 ballot. The mechanism of eliminating property taxes is a gradually but significantly expanded homestead exemption, which would increase the home values which are exempt from taxes each year. The Florida House of Representatives and Senate both passed the bill, largely along party lines. Three Democratic state senators supported it, while two Republican state representatives opposed it.