June 3, 2026 • 9 mins
Ryan talks to Former State Senator and Florida Policy Project founder Jeff Brandes about how Florida tax revenues are allocated, where recent revenue increases have come from, and the potential benefits and drawbacks of the proposed property tax cut constitutional amendment.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Ryan Gorman Show podcast presented by Farah and Farah,
Accident attorneys from Tampa.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
All right, joining us now, we have former state Senator
and founder of the Florida Policy Project, Jeff Brandis Is
with us this morning. You can learn more at Floridapolicyproject
dot com and you can follow Jeff on x at
Jeffrey Brandis. Jeff, thanks so much for coming on to
talk about this amendment that's going to be on the
(00:28):
ballot in November dealing with property taxes here in Florida.
And I want to start with some questions and points
of view that have come from listeners over the past
couple of days. I think you're the perfect person to
answer these questions. The main issue that I keep seeing
brought up is basically that local governments waste a ton
(00:48):
of money, so this will help taxpayers while forcing politicians
to spend revenue more wisely and only on the essentials.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Do they have a point, Well, let's just look at
the budgets.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
I mean, you can look at these budgets and say,
all right, there's probably three to five percent that's just
waste and abuse and broad or all of that things.
But for the most part, a lot of their money
goes toward public safety, a lot of their money goes
towards kind of keeping the functions of government, going transportation,
and things of that nature. So a fifty percent cut,
if the people think it's, oh, it's fifty percent of
fraud waste, that's just a completely incorrect.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
And I think another issue that I've noticed is that
there's in some instances a bit of a lack of
understanding as to what exactly that taxpayer money is going to.
So when you're talking about these local governments municipalities, can
you give us kind of an overview. You mentioned a
few things there, but what are these these property taxes
(01:51):
paying for.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
They're paying for your well today, they're paying for your schools.
They're paying for your police, your firefighter, your transportation to
the city to fix the roads, your water drainage, all
of those kinds of things, the core functions of like
planning and zoning and ode enforcement, those all the things
that kind of make the function of government run.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
People see the amount of revenue that's been collected in
recent years, how much it's gone up, how much local
budgets have increased, and they want to know why shouldn't
we get some of our money back. What about some
of the numbers we hear about the increase in property
tax revenue and spending that we've seen throughout the state.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Sure, And I think this is where the governor has
kind of got some fuzzy math because he likes to
talk about these statements generally, but he doesn't generally talk
about them specifically.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
And if he does talk about them specifically.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
It's usually like Miami Dade, right, he uses Dad as
the big example, but he doesn't ever use Liberty County
as the example. Limity County has eight thousand residents. The
average home price there is two hundred and thirty thousand dollars. Basically,
this wipes out that entire category for them. And so,
you know, I think there's a there's a scenario here
where we have to start having a conversation about merging
(03:11):
counties because.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
These counties don't have enough to function on.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
And the governor basically said that, he said, hey, listen,
we need to create a trust fund to backfill these
counties who just aren't going to be able to make it.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
And it's not just counties, it's cities too.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Unfortunately, we don't have any data that shows us exactly
how much money that will be. It will be more
than the governor kind of is proposing than it's that
it should be, because.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
I think they have not they haven't actually done the
math yet.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
So this is one of those kind of Nancy glowsy
comments where we have to pass it before we know
what's in it. They passed it before they knew what
the math was. This is, this is post due diligence.
This is not due diligence that typically companies would do
for an issue of this magnitude.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
But what about that increase in revenue that we've been
hearing about. There certainly has sure been that happening across
the state. But but and I broke this down on
a recent show, there are a number of different factors
for those revenue increases.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Absolutely there is there. You can look at just growth.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Right if your city had four hundred thousand people before
and it has five hundred thousand people now, well, you
know that's a twenty percent increase. We we're you know,
we're going to see there's gonna be some some additional
services from police, police officers, firefighters that we need to hire.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Inflation, just over the last few years.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
Inflation is up twenty percent, twenty five percent in these communities,
and that's hitting everything across the board, from their healthcare
costs to their salaries, you know, just to the to
the road maintenance cost because we've got to pay more
for that as well. So it was never going to
be level. We were never going to stay at twenty
nineteen budget levels, right, and just inflation and and franquently
(04:51):
we get, you know, the where the US hits in
that in that spectrum is going to cost more in
cities are having to adjust as well.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
We're joined by former state senator and founder of the
Florida Policy Project. Jeff Brandis is with us. You can
learn more at Florida Policyproject dot com. You can also
follow him on x at Jeffrey Brandis. So, Jeff, if
this particular amendment on property taxes is too tough of
a pill to swallow for some, what would another option be,
(05:20):
Because there's no question affordability is a big issue here
in Florida and taxpayers could use a little relief.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
Absolutely, and I absolutely believe that we should reform the system.
There are people that just doesn't work for here. Here's
what I would have done to one of two things. Right. One,
the simple thing to do was just update the homestead
exemption for inflation. The original twenty five thousand was set
in nineteen eighty. That would be about ninety thousand dollars today,
that would be That would be the simplest putt. But
(05:51):
my preferred mechanism if we're going to tax real estate
and property is go to a land value only tax.
Don't tax the improvements, just tax the raw land. And
to me, that is considered really the fairest of the
back of the way we can do the taxes on
this because it doesn't you know, it doesn't penalize people
(06:13):
for investing in their land. It doesn't you know, it
doesn't matter whether you build a house and a pool
and everything else like that.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
No, we're just taxing the raw value of the land.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Last thing I want to touch on, we know what
the benefits would be if this amendment passes for taxpayers.
What would the fallout potentially be over time?
Speaker 4 (06:34):
So I think there's a thing that people aren't talking about,
which is the non advalorm taxes.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
This is this is a mechanism.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
Where for example, the sheriff's department or your local fire
Department can just put an individual line it on that
is it subject to exemptions on your bill. And so
my concern is that we go from a bill where
you know, you get a three thousand dollars tax bill
to a bill where you get everything lined out in
individual line items and it applies to everybody. So I
think that's one thing that people aren't thinking about. The
(07:02):
other thing I think people aren't thinking about is we
don't create second class citizens in America. One of the
provisions of this bill is that it has a you
have to be here for five years as a resident
before you qualify. That really creates a second class citizen.
My buddy Jason Pizzott pointed that out. He says, Listen,
you can be a Green card holder and a permanent
resident and move to Florida in twenty twenty six and
(07:24):
get this benefit. But if you retire from the Marine
Corps after thirty years of service and you move to Florida,
You've got to wait five years to get this benefit.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
I think the courts are going to throw that out.
And again, I think this is just one of the
other provisions.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
That wasn't thought through this bill was put together when
they originally filed it, it even include constitutional officers, right, and
didn't even include your property appraiser, your and your your
election supervisor as part of it. So the simple truth
is they've had a year and a half of putting
this bill together.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
They really put it together over a few.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
Weeks, and then when the Senate and House got it,
there still a lot of problems with it. So we'll
see what happens here in November. Listen, the state will
be fine either way. Right where we're going to figure
this out. There will be changes though, right. There will
be consolidations of cities. There will be consolidations of counties
longer term because the state's not going to let them
be on an allowance and kind of dependent counties and
(08:19):
cities forever.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Right.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
The biggest challenge I have with this piece of legislation
is basically we're reshaping how government works. Historically, local government
took care of their issues locally. This requires local government
that can't make their issues locally because we've taken away
of their revenue to come to Tallahassee, and so it
centralizes more control in Tallahassee, which is my overriding concern
(08:44):
with this process.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Former state Senator and founder of the Florida Policy Project,
Jeff brandis with us again. You can learn more at
Florida Policyproject dot com and definitely follow him on x
for some more great insight into this issue at Jeffrey Brandis.
Jeff always appreciate the time. Thank you so much for
joining us this morning.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Great to be with you. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Listen Live to Have a Ryan Gorman Show on iHeartRadio
every weekday morning on WIOD and Miami, w f LA
and Tampa, presented by Farah and Farah Accident Attorneys, Tampa,
The Ryan Gorman Show podcast presented by Farah and Farah,
Accident attorneys from Tampa.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
All right, joining us now, we have former state Senator
and founder of the Florida Policy Project, Jeff Brandis Is
with us this morning. You can learn more at Floridapolicyproject
dot com and you can follow Jeff on x at
Jeffrey Brandis. Jeff, thanks so much for coming on to
talk about this amendment that's going to be on the
(00:28):
ballot in November dealing with property taxes here in Florida.
And I want to start with some questions and points
of view that have come from listeners over the past
couple of days. I think you're the perfect person to
answer these questions. The main issue that I keep seeing
brought up is basically that local governments waste a ton
(00:48):
of money, so this will help taxpayers while forcing politicians
to spend revenue more wisely and only on the essentials.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Do they have a point, Well, let's just look at
the budgets.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
I mean, you can look at these budgets and say,
all right, there's probably three to five percent that's just
waste and abuse and broad or all of that things.
But for the most part, a lot of their money
goes toward public safety, a lot of their money goes
towards kind of keeping the functions of government, going transportation,
and things of that nature. So a fifty percent cut,
if the people think it's, oh, it's fifty percent of
fraud waste, that's just a completely incorrect.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
And I think another issue that I've noticed is that
there's in some instances a bit of a lack of
understanding as to what exactly that taxpayer money is going to.
So when you're talking about these local governments municipalities, can
you give us kind of an overview. You mentioned a
few things there, but what are these these property taxes
(01:51):
paying for.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
They're paying for your well today, they're paying for your schools.
They're paying for your police, your firefighter, your transportation to
the city to fix the roads, your water drainage, all
of those kinds of things, the core functions of like
planning and zoning and ode enforcement, those all the things
that kind of make the function of government run.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
People see the amount of revenue that's been collected in
recent years, how much it's gone up, how much local
budgets have increased, and they want to know why shouldn't
we get some of our money back. What about some
of the numbers we hear about the increase in property
tax revenue and spending that we've seen throughout the state.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Sure, And I think this is where the governor has
kind of got some fuzzy math because he likes to
talk about these statements generally, but he doesn't generally talk
about them specifically.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
And if he does talk about them specifically.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
It's usually like Miami Dade, right, he uses Dad as
the big example, but he doesn't ever use Liberty County
as the example. Limity County has eight thousand residents. The
average home price there is two hundred and thirty thousand dollars. Basically,
this wipes out that entire category for them. And so,
you know, I think there's a there's a scenario here
where we have to start having a conversation about merging
(03:11):
counties because.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
These counties don't have enough to function on.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
And the governor basically said that, he said, hey, listen,
we need to create a trust fund to backfill these
counties who just aren't going to be able to make it.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
And it's not just counties, it's cities too.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Unfortunately, we don't have any data that shows us exactly
how much money that will be. It will be more
than the governor kind of is proposing than it's that
it should be, because.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
I think they have not they haven't actually done the
math yet.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
So this is one of those kind of Nancy glowsy
comments where we have to pass it before we know
what's in it. They passed it before they knew what
the math was. This is, this is post due diligence.
This is not due diligence that typically companies would do
for an issue of this magnitude.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
But what about that increase in revenue that we've been
hearing about. There certainly has sure been that happening across
the state. But but and I broke this down on
a recent show, there are a number of different factors
for those revenue increases.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Absolutely there is there. You can look at just growth.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Right if your city had four hundred thousand people before
and it has five hundred thousand people now, well, you
know that's a twenty percent increase. We we're you know,
we're going to see there's gonna be some some additional
services from police, police officers, firefighters that we need to hire.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Inflation, just over the last few years.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
Inflation is up twenty percent, twenty five percent in these communities,
and that's hitting everything across the board, from their healthcare
costs to their salaries, you know, just to the to
the road maintenance cost because we've got to pay more
for that as well. So it was never going to
be level. We were never going to stay at twenty
nineteen budget levels, right, and just inflation and and franquently
(04:51):
we get, you know, the where the US hits in
that in that spectrum is going to cost more in
cities are having to adjust as well.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
We're joined by former state senator and founder of the
Florida Policy Project. Jeff Brandis is with us. You can
learn more at Florida Policyproject dot com. You can also
follow him on x at Jeffrey Brandis. So, Jeff, if
this particular amendment on property taxes is too tough of
a pill to swallow for some, what would another option be,
(05:20):
Because there's no question affordability is a big issue here
in Florida and taxpayers could use a little relief.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
Absolutely, and I absolutely believe that we should reform the system.
There are people that just doesn't work for here. Here's
what I would have done to one of two things. Right. One,
the simple thing to do was just update the homestead
exemption for inflation. The original twenty five thousand was set
in nineteen eighty. That would be about ninety thousand dollars today,
that would be That would be the simplest putt. But
(05:51):
my preferred mechanism if we're going to tax real estate
and property is go to a land value only tax.
Don't tax the improvements, just tax the raw land. And
to me, that is considered really the fairest of the
back of the way we can do the taxes on
this because it doesn't you know, it doesn't penalize people
(06:13):
for investing in their land. It doesn't you know, it
doesn't matter whether you build a house and a pool
and everything else like that.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
No, we're just taxing the raw value of the land.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Last thing I want to touch on, we know what
the benefits would be if this amendment passes for taxpayers.
What would the fallout potentially be over time?
Speaker 4 (06:34):
So I think there's a thing that people aren't talking about,
which is the non advalorm taxes.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
This is this is a mechanism.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
Where for example, the sheriff's department or your local fire
Department can just put an individual line it on that
is it subject to exemptions on your bill. And so
my concern is that we go from a bill where
you know, you get a three thousand dollars tax bill
to a bill where you get everything lined out in
individual line items and it applies to everybody. So I
think that's one thing that people aren't thinking about. The
(07:02):
other thing I think people aren't thinking about is we
don't create second class citizens in America. One of the
provisions of this bill is that it has a you
have to be here for five years as a resident
before you qualify. That really creates a second class citizen.
My buddy Jason Pizzott pointed that out. He says, Listen,
you can be a Green card holder and a permanent
resident and move to Florida in twenty twenty six and
(07:24):
get this benefit. But if you retire from the Marine
Corps after thirty years of service and you move to Florida,
You've got to wait five years to get this benefit.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
I think the courts are going to throw that out.
And again, I think this is just one of the
other provisions.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
That wasn't thought through this bill was put together when
they originally filed it, it even include constitutional officers, right, and
didn't even include your property appraiser, your and your your
election supervisor as part of it. So the simple truth
is they've had a year and a half of putting
this bill together.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
They really put it together over a few.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
Weeks, and then when the Senate and House got it,
there still a lot of problems with it. So we'll
see what happens here in November. Listen, the state will
be fine either way. Right where we're going to figure
this out. There will be changes though, right. There will
be consolidations of cities. There will be consolidations of counties
longer term because the state's not going to let them
be on an allowance and kind of dependent counties and
(08:19):
cities forever.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Right.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
The biggest challenge I have with this piece of legislation
is basically we're reshaping how government works. Historically, local government
took care of their issues locally. This requires local government
that can't make their issues locally because we've taken away
of their revenue to come to Tallahassee, and so it
centralizes more control in Tallahassee, which is my overriding concern
(08:44):
with this process.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Former state Senator and founder of the Florida Policy Project,
Jeff brandis with us again. You can learn more at
Florida Policyproject dot com and definitely follow him on x
for some more great insight into this issue at Jeffrey Brandis.
Jeff always appreciate the time. Thank you so much for
joining us this morning.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Great to be with you. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Listen Live to Have a Ryan Gorman Show on iHeartRadio
every weekday morning on WIOD and Miami, w f LA
and Tampa, presented by Farah and Farah Accident Attorneys, Tampa,
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