Mayor: Gutting property taxes would be ‘catastrophic’ for Miami-Dade | Opinion
I believe in tax relief.
I have fought for it my entire career. And as mayor, I reduced Miami-Dade’s property tax rate to its lowest level since 1982, even as our community’s needs have never been greater.
But there is a profound difference between thoughtful, sustained tax relief and what the state is now proposing: the wholesale dismantling of the property tax system that funds the essential services that make our community run.
Let me be direct: this affects your safety, your children’s schools and the quality of life you have built here. Eliminating or severely gutting property taxes would be catastrophic for Miami-Dade County.
The numbers don’t lie
Property taxes generate roughly $55 billion annually across Florida. They fund approximately 50% to 60% of public school budgets, 18% of county revenues and 17% of municipal revenues statewide. In Miami-Dade alone, property taxes are the financial backbone that pays for police, fire rescue, parks, libraries and the social services that hold our community together.
Current projections show the state’s proposal could reduce Miami-Dade County revenues by nearly $386 million in 2027 and $697 million over two years. Those losses would drastically affect services residents depend on, including $146 million for fire rescue, $64 million for Jackson Health System and nearly $39 million for library services.
When you call 911 at 2 a.m., a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue team responds. That team is funded by your property taxes. When a Miami-Dade Sheriff’s deputy patrols your neighborhood, that deputy’s salary is funded in part by property taxes. When your child goes to a Miami-Dade public school, that school is overwhelmingly funded by property taxes. Eliminate that funding without a credible, proven replacement, and you are not cutting government waste — you are dismantling the services you rely on every single day.
Miami-Dade is already operating a lean, efficient government. We navigated a challenging budget last year driven in part by the implementation of state-mandated constitutional offices. We have already cut departments, consolidated operations, reduced positions and made difficult decisions to protect core services. I have held the line on the property tax rate precisely because even a small reduction in that rate means a large reduction in services for 2.7 million residents.
To eliminate or phase out this revenue stream, without a viable, guaranteed and locally-controlled replacement, would force choices no resident should have to face: closing fire stations, reducing police patrols, shuttering park facilities and cutting school programs that serve hundreds of thousands of children.
Hidden tax shift
Here is what proponents of this plan are not telling you: eliminating property taxes does not eliminate the cost of government. It shifts how — and from whom — that cost is collected.
The question is who pays for it.
Many renters and business owners could end up paying more despite receiving no direct benefit from a homestead exemption, as higher costs are often passed along through rent increases, fees and higher prices.
I am not opposed to property tax reform. I understand the pain of rising assessments as home values have soared. That’s exactly why I reduced the millage rate two years in a row because I believe residents deserve relief that does not come at the expense of their safety or their children’s futures.
What I cannot support is a plan that blows a hole in local government budgets, shifts the burden to taxes and fees that fall hardest on working families and seniors, strips local officials of the tools to serve their communities and has never been fully analyzed.
The governor vetoed the very study that would have told us what the consequences would be. We should not be amending the Florida Constitution without the clarity needed to deliver on our elected duty to serve our residents.
Miami-Dade and all Floridians deserve better.
Daniella Levine Cava is mayor of Miami-Dade County.