- This is a production of WEDU PBS, Tampa, St.

Petersburg, Sarasota.

[music] - Coming up: the most sweeping proposal to cut property taxes in Florida has been approved by lawmakers.

Now it's headed to your ballot this November.

Is it relief for homeowners or a risk to schools and services those taxes pay for?

This fall, voters decide a record Florida education budget clears Tallahassee.

Who gains and who has to wait.

What it could mean for public schools, school vouchers and the teachers.

Joining us is the former president of the Florida Education Association.

And it's a question communities across the country and here in the Tampa Bay area are grappling with.

Are AI data centers worth it for folks living nearby Pasco?

Just the latest county to weigh a pause on server farms and the water and power they demand.

And the new hurricane season is here.

WEDU is a member of the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network.

What that means for you and our community at large, and how you can help.

We hear from trusted voices in our community right now on Florida This Week.

[music] Welcome back, everybody.

Welcome to Florida This Week.

We want to get to our panelists first.

A Republican who spent nearly two decades in the Florida Legislature in both the House and the Senate, rising to Senate President Pro Tempore.

Today, he collects the taxes that keep his county running.

Pasco County tax collector Mike Fasano.

Next we have property appraiser Bob Henriquez.

He's a fifth-generation Campanian and a former Democratic State Representative.

Now he leads the office that sets the value of every property in Hillsborough County.

And we also want to welcome Yacob Reyes to our studio.

He's a reporter for Axios Tampa Bay.

He covers the people, the politics, and the money shaping this region.

And finally, joining us via Zoom, a classroom teacher who went on to lead Florida's largest teachers union for more than six years.

And today he serves as secretary and treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers.

We welcome Fedrick Ingram.

Now, the Florida story making national headlines this week, potentially the most sweeping change to property taxes in state history.

Just 48 hours into the special session on property taxes, lawmakers approved a proposed constitutional amendment to raise the homestead exemption by $100,000 next year.

The goal is to eventually eliminate non-school property taxes on primary homes.

Florida voters will need to approve it in the midterm election by at least 60% in favor.

Our panel has a lot to say on what passing it could mean for local services, and so we want to begin right off the bat with Mike and with Bob.

Your thoughts?

- I'm going to defer to Mike first.

- You know.

- They always defer to the tax collector.

- Well, they write badly about you in the Bible.

So bless you.

- Bless you.

I will tell you that, you know, this is going to help some of the little guy and gal.

It really is.

I mean, I wish they would have implemented it where it would be over a period of maybe 5 or 10 years, but to all of a sudden in 48 hours, they're telling the people of Florida, they're telling the governments of Florida cities and counties, by the way, if this passes, you're going to be cutting your budget significantly.

You know, in Hillsborough County.

You're looking at $450 million cut in revenue.

Pinellas County, about 225 million in Pasco County, about 250 million.

These are less dollars that will be collecting and giving to those counties and cities.

And so people say, well, that's great, that's great.

My taxes are going to go down.

That's wonderful.

If you want to do that, please understand the impact.

There's a trickle-down effect.

We're talking that budgets are going to have to be cut.

Law enforcement is going to get less money.

Your parks and rec departments are going to get less money.

Fire, fire, fire and rescue is going to get less money.

This this will have a huge impact on every agency in the county and in the cities.

- Before I get to Bob, what are the numbers?

You, you, your office was crunching the numbers on the impacts in Pasco County.

What are some of the numbers that you can share with us?

- I can only tell you that Pasco County will see when that hits $250,000 exemption.

Pasco County will see about $250 million in less revenue.

But it's also important to understand, you know, I brought my tax bill with me and on that tax bill, and I encourage everyone to look at your tax bill, see what's on there.

There are important programs on there.

There are bond issues.

There's debt on that tax bill that has to be paid in Pasco County.

We have bonds on there that have to be paid, that are building a new jail.

Parks and rec, fire stations, things that people voted for.

This wasn't put on by the county commission.

These were put on by the voters of Pasco.

They still have to be paid.

How in the world are they going to be paid?

This debt's going to be paid if these taxes.

The revenues are no longer there.

- Bob, what are some of the numbers that you all are looking at?

- Well, it's...and Senator has really, I think, spoken to a lot of the unknowns, which is probably more questions than answers at this point as a result or what may result going forward.

But when it goes to 250,000, if it should, it's in the neighborhood of $480 million.

And that's based on 2025 tax roll.

Um, and the other thing that's important for folks is the senator spoke to is that we there's we kind of focus on the Hillsborough County city of Tampa, Temple Terrace, Plant City, but there's all these other taxing authorities that rely and in some cases on a much higher proportion of property taxes.

You know, in Hillsborough, we have a Port Authority, aviation authority, special authorities like that children's board, the water management districts, and all of those will be affected greatly as a result of this.

And so this is really something that the voters hopefully will be able to will have to educate themselves on going forward.

There's no question that we're all being squeezed by this affordability crisis.

And I know that there was, from the political reality in Tallahassee, and we're very much aware of those things, was that they had to come home, they had to come home with something to be able to, to say that they did something to address the affordability.

That doesn't change a lot of the other things.

Insurance cost of, of, you know, groceries, gas, those other affordability things.

But at least they're able to come home and say, well, this is something for the little guy.

It's going to end up being a decision between our own individual self and long term.

What it means, because this is a fundamental change in how we fund services or not able to fund services throughout the state.

- And Florida is not the only one grappling with this issue.

Florida is one of 13 different states in the U.S.

that are really looking at either reducing property taxes or eliminating them altogether, or maybe adding new exemptions.

- What's great about Florida?

You don't have a state income tax.

These other states that are having issues, they probably have a state income tax.

We enjoy not having one and we can never have one because it's it's you can't have it because the Constitution says we can't have them, which is great.

But it's important.

Again, people need to understand how we're going to pay these, these services that they're getting right now.

Senior services.

We have a senior services program in Pasco County.

How is that going to be hit?

You know, mosquito control people think oh, mosquito control.

People love mosquito control in Pasco County.

They're going to be hit hard and it's I would encourage anyone, everyone to look at their tax bill, see what's on there and understand those services may either be reduced or done away with completely.

- Yacob, what are you hearing as you gather your news for this story?

- Well, you know, I think I've heard from a lot of a lot of people from both sides of the aisle raising concerns about what this does to representative government.

You know, it changes how they can spend their money, what latitude they have to set tax rates.

Um, you know, and these are a lot of different things that people have brought up and that could have a large impact.

You know, a lot of people see this as massive preemption.

You know, the state seizing a lot of power, um, in eliminating these property taxes.

- I'd like to bring Frederick into the conversation.

Frederick, one of the things that the that folks have said is that they are very glad that school related taxes will still be collected on the property tax amendment that's being proposed in Florida.

How does this impact teachers in the long run?

- Yeah.

Well, listen, thank you for having me and I appreciate that.

And I appreciate all of the other panelists for their, um, issues of concern.

But let me tell you, um, this is the proverbial nose under the tent, right?

There is an exemption this year for, uh, these public schools.

And so we are happy about that, but it does not solve the problem of the funding for our public schools.

When you continue to, uh, you know, take in less money and then you push out more money under a voucher system or a scholarship program for, for, for kids, you know, so, so that they can go out to, ah, these other schools to charters, the privates, the parochial and that kind of thing.

And so teachers need, you know, it costs money to educate our kids.

And we know that $7.7 billion from these property taxes across the state go directly to our public schools.

And so we continue to need that money.

We're going to continue to advocate for it.

But we also know that this is a government.

And under this leadership has, has, has, has taken one bite, and then they come back for another bite.

And so we are we are 41st in per pupil spending, and we are 50th in average teacher pay.

And so teachers need money to educate our kids.

And we need money to deal with the infrastructure of our aging buildings.

- And public school funding was one of the flashpoints in the debate over property taxes in Florida.

It took a full regular session and a week long special session for feuding lawmakers to close a $1 billion gap on what to fund for the new fiscal year that starts on July the 1st.

Now that it's done, there is a record $30 billion for public schools, grades K through 12.

It raises.

There are raises for teachers with the minimum of ten years experience in the Florida public school system.

A $79 million to assist districts with declining enrollment and facing solvency issues, and billions preserved for the controversial school vouchers.

I'd like to start with you, Mike.

How do you feel about the property taxes preserving the school related taxes?

- I was very much relieved when the in fact, I spoke to a couple of legislators that represent Pasco County.

I was very concerned about the reduction the schools would take throughout the state if they were not exempt, and thankfully, some common sense finally prevailed in Tallahassee, and both the House and the Senate agreed that you can't, uh, you can't hit the schools.

And so they're going to be able to continue getting the dollars.

They are from the from local dollars.

That is Tallahassee is a different story.

You know, I will tell you, there was an article in the Tampa Bay Times.

Pasco County is seeing a huge reduction in school enrollment.

They see students that are no longer going to be there over the next few years.

And and so we're seeing that in Pinellas County.

Pinellas County is closing down schools because of the reduction of students that are in public schools.

We're seeing a lot more students either being homeschooled or going into charter schools or going into private schools.

- And many critics of the school vouchers say that that is one of the reasons why the schools are their budgets are being eroded.

I'd like to bring you into the conversation.

How does this funding help or hurt public schools?

Is it enough?

- Uh, so no, it's not enough because we have historically underfunded our public schools and so on top of students, uh, leaving our public school system, we have teachers that are leaving our public school systems.

They're leaving our public school systems simply because they, they, they are 41st in the nation in teacher pay.

They cannot pay their bills.

There is an absolute affordability crisis for our teachers and our educational support professionals, those hardworking secretaries and those security monitors and counselors.

Uh, you know, so those are the things that are driving people out of our schools.

But our young people are, you know, like one of our guests said, going to home school, parochial school and charter schools.

And we have zero problem with any of that, except for those institutions cannot scale up in the way that public schools are.

And so when we continue to, uh, defund our public school system, which 90% of the students in the state of Florida and across this country attend, then we, we are we're going to be facing a massive problem in the short term and the long term in terms of sustaining our schools, keeping them open, keeping teachers here and what we all care about.

Student achievement.

- In your role now at the American Federation of Teachers, have you found examples of school districts in the rest of the country that have implemented school vouchers and have some success stories to talk about.

- Well, not in a scalable way.

So, you know, there are places that do, do fine in education.

There are places who do great and they receive these scholarships or voucher systems, but they cannot scale up and they cannot scale out.

And when you have a government that continues to defund the public school system, you have the haves and have nots.

You form this tiered system of education where some people will get a better education based on where they live or based on their socioeconomic background or their parents, you know, a station in life.

And that's not fair.

Public education takes them all.

We take them with their challenges.

We take them from every zip code, and we teach them all.

And so and our lawmakers know that it takes money to educate our kids.

That's why they continue to do the voucher program.

Unfortunately, it's just a corporate way of putting a price tag on education, and some people are going to be able to afford it, and some people can't.

And that's not fair to all Floridians.

- Bob, is this something that, um, should the property taxes really preserving the school related portion of the taxes?

Um, many voters will look at that and feel relief for public schools.

Um, is that, is that accurate?

Should they feel that schools are protected or is there still some danger because these things do they are connected.

They are linked.

The services that are paid for with taxes.

- I think schools, you can have some sense of relief in that some portion of the funding for public schools will be preserved, um, as Mike spoke to.

But we also have to remember that there's also a state portion of the funding formula that comes back to our local public schools.

And there's already projections.

You know, we have this sense because we've been doing so well that somehow we're recession proof or that we're always going to have good times.

And those of us that are, you know, natives have been around when we haven't had good times in the state of Florida.

So there's a lot of unknowns.

And and there are projections that there will be deficits in the state budgets over the coming years.

And we should keep that in mind as healthy as as our budgets may be.

So what that portion may not be guaranteed for the future.

And I will tell you that there also are certain things that are funded outside of the public school direct budget that are by that are that are funded by communities, you know, and by counties and cities.

So, you know, if you're in South County and you're growing like crazy and you need and you have a school budgeted or at least on the, on the books to build, well, you don't just build it in, you know, all by itself.

You have to have roads to get to it.

You have to have stoplights, you have to have infrastructure, infrastructure.

And if the money's not there to, to, to do the infrastructure, then, you know, going forward, then that's going to affect the schools as well.

So there's a lot of indirect costs Uh, that, that, that prop up our public school system, um, that are really not being considered.

- Thank you for that.

And in other news, they power our smartphones, our streaming platforms, and the artificial intelligence that's reshaping daily life.

Data centers is what we're talking about.

But they do demand enormous amounts of water and electricity that has communities nationwide.

And in the West Coast, Central Florida in particular, asking whether they are worth it.

Pasco is now the latest local county, weighing a pause on new server farms, joining Citrus and Hernando County.

More and more folks are raising concerns over cost, water and power.

Pasco commissioners will discuss a temporary moratorium in committee on June the 11th.

The general public will be able to weigh in during a board hearing on June the 16th.

Your thoughts on this data center?

- Well, I checked with ChatGPT to answer this question.

No, not really, but it's a a huge issue right now.

And from our perspective and the property appraiser's office trying to figure out going forward how to value these because they're basically giant warehouses and there's actually a lot of pressure.

One of the driving parts of our real estate market in Hillsboro post-pandemic has been industrial, and particularly the ability to, to have your goods and goods close to you.

You know, everybody wanted we didn't like the fact we couldn't get toilet paper.

So you want to have it close to you.

And so the industrial has been very, very has done very, very well over the past few years.

This these basically replace industrial, um, type locations.

And from a value standpoint may not be valued the same way that some other industrial use may be.

So it'll be interesting how that might affect the, the tax roll going forward in some of those, those areas.

But it's a huge discussion.

And, and the more that these that there's not a regional aspect to this.

So the more that the counties that surround Hillsborough County, um, create moratoriums or discourage them, then there's more of a sense that then there may be more pressure on the more the larger counties to, to end up housing these.

And we already have we know the issues of power.

And I like the fact that the legislature that the governor signed a something that says that these that they can't pass, that the TECO and others can't pass on the.

We've already passed enough on.

I just paid my.

I just paid my bill last night and he keeps going up.

So that's, that's probably a good thing.

But this is going to be a huge discussion going forward for Mike.

- The decision, you know, to support these does have its supporters that it brings in a lot of much needed income revenue to the communities.

Well, what does something like this do to the tax roll in Pasco County.

- Well, the tax roll I mean the taxes will definitely the revenue for the county will definitely increase tangible tax tangible because of all that equipment that's inside there.

The property appraiser will assess that as well along with the building.

Um, but I have to look at it this way.

I want to commend Pasco County Commission, Citrus County, Hernando County for taking action, taking action now before it's too late.

I mean, the commission has put a board of county commission in Pasco, has put a moratorium for at least a year.

Uh, they're now studying it and they'll come back and make a decision.

But I look at the impact it's going to have on the community, the energy that this data center will have to use.

It's overwhelming the water that it will have to use.

Where is this going to come from?

I mean, in Pasco County and throughout the state, we're on water restrictions now.

And what will this data center will have to take in as far as electrical and water needs to be determined.

- We love this part.

This is our other big stories of the week.

Yacob, I know that you have been following very closely what's happening with the Tampa Bay Rays and their quest for a new ballpark.

What is the latest on that?

- Right?

We've seen some concerns, obviously, because of this, you know, property tax amendment that's going to be on the ballot.

A lot of people have concerns about the amount of money about, you know, nearly 1 billion coming from the city of Tampa in Hillsborough County, and most recently, you know, a member of the Tampa Sports Authority sent a letter saying, um, well, you know, made a motion to send a letter saying that the Buccaneers stadium, Raymond James, should be prioritized over the ballpark.

And and then we saw a DeSantis appointee, um, Christine Miller, uh, you know, asked the county attorney whether or not, um, you know, what would the process look like to remove a member?

So it seems like, you know, there's an escalating pressure coming.

Uh, you know, it seems to be coming from the, from the outside, uh, to, to get the commissioners to, to vote this through and at a time where, uh, you know, it's unclear what their, their revenue is going to be looking like and whether or not, uh, you know, they might need to have some of these taxes that they're going to be putting toward this available.

- Frederick, I'd like to ask you, this is a busy time of the year.

What would you say is your big story?

- Oh, wow.

It's the, the, the, the multitude of graduations that you see from our colleges and universities, from our high schools, from our young people matriculating from middle school to high school, and our younger folks going from elementary to middle school.

If you have a niece or nephew or a son or daughter or granddaughter, this is our time of year.

This is where teachers get giddy, because there are two times a year where we're extra happy at the beginning of the year because we believe you can teach.

- Every kid who comes in that classroom.

And at the end of the year where you see that progress, where that maturation happens with all of our folks.

So in spite of being underfunded and in spite of a lot of the attacks that we've had politically, um, teachers do this because they love our students and they want their communities to be better.

They want their families to be better.

And ultimately, as a lifelong Floridian, we want Florida to be a better state.

And so let's pour into our public schools because our young people are still coming out and they're the best and brightest that we have.

And, you know, teachers across the state do what they do because our students deserve that, along with our ESPs and all of our folks from administrators to school board members, we're all trying to make us a better state and a better country.

- Well, here in the studio as you're talking, Frederick, we have Bob nodding his head.

Your son is one of the... - He just graduated from high school.

Be headed to the University of Tampa, so I'll probably be driving an Uber next year to pay for it.

In addition to everything else.

- But tell us about your big story.

- No, I think my big story is personally is we have our fifth annual state of the market coming up on the 17th of June.

So it's coming up in a couple of weeks.

It's it's really an incredible event.

It's it's very fast paced.

It's just a morning starting at 7:45.

We do have pastelitos and café con leche in the morning.

So that's a big draw.

And it literally is a who's who of all the various sectors of the real estate market.

Um, and you know, talking about everything from developers to investors, you name it.

A nationally known economist who's who's incredible, he's been there all five years.

And so we look forward to doing that.

And having a few hundred people at the Cuban Club in Ybor City, June 17th.

You can go on our website and register.

- Your last story.

- Um, the amendment that we spoke about earlier that's gonna be on the ballot has some language in there.

The ballot language that talks about you have to live in Florida in order to get the, this $150,000 and $250,000 exemption.

- You have to live in Florida for five years.

- You have to live in Florida for five years.

You know, many, many years ago, you had to live in Florida for five years to get the initial initial exemption of 25,000 when it was 25,000, the Supreme Court of Florida threw that out saying it was unconstitutional.

So I'm wondering, uh, people have to wonder is that's what's going to happen in this case if the amendment passes.

With this requirement, you have to live in Florida to get the exemption.

Well, the Supreme Court, Florida Supreme Court, throw that out as well.

- Thank you, gentlemen, for your time.

Our hurricane season is now here June 1st through November the 30th.

Forecasters predict the season will be slightly less active than usual.

Still, emergency managers are urging folks to be prepared.

You can count on WEDU as a partner of Florida Public Radio Emergency Network, also known as FPREN, and we ask you to tune in next Friday, June the 12th at 9 p.m.

for our annual Hurricane Special.

We're talking advice on insurance, home elevation and flood technology.

Plus, you'll learn how you can support public media safety initiatives and get your official WEDU PBS Hurricane prep kit.

Again, that's next Friday at 9 p.m.

right here on WEDU.

Our thanks to all of our panelists joining us today, Yacob, Mike, Bob and Frederick, we thank you for your time.

And to you also watching.

We know that you've got plenty of choices for your news and information, and we thank you for choosing us.

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