This is a production of WEDU PBS Tampa, St.

Petersburg, Sarasota.

[music] Coming up, a Florida House panel is digging deeper into the idea of eliminating property taxes in Florida.

We'll have the latest on what the governor hopes will be a constitutional amendment on the ballot next year.

Nonprofits and voter awareness and engagement are sounding the alarm against federal guidelines restricting their access to newly naturalized American citizens, and what the sale of the Tampa Bay Rays could mean for the local economy, as well as baseball fans.

Those stories and more are next on Florida This Week.

[music] Welcome back, everybody.

I'm Lissette Campos.

Joining our panel this week we have strategist Travis Horn.

He is the president and CEO of Bullhorn Communications.

Journalist Katelyn Ferral, political reporter for the Tampa Bay Times Lindsey Polega- Quigley, first vice president of the St.

Petersburg League of Women Voters, and journalist Mitch Perry, who is the senior reporter for the Florida Phoenix.

We begin with property taxes.

It's an issue impacting two in every three households in the state of Florida.

According to the U.S.

census, more than 67% of residents are homeowners.

And with that come property taxes.

Rising home values have pushed tax bills higher in recent years, making it harder to afford a home.

And now, serious discussions about reducing or even eliminating property taxes on homesteaded properties have begun at the state Capitol.

Take a look.

This week, a Florida House panel met to examine the potential impacts.

A homestead is a property listed in the local tax rolls as a resident's primary home.

Governor Ron DeSantis is pressing lawmakers to put a constitutional amendment on the 2026 ballot to cut property taxes for homesteads.

Local governments warn the move could create billion dollar budget gaps affecting police, fire and the public education system.

The Florida Policy Institute estimates the impact would be severe in Hillsborough County.

Eliminating property taxes could mean a $1.47 billion loss for schools alone.

The institute estimates the losses could be as much as $963 million.

A closer look at the map of Greater Tampa Bay provides perspective.

Major counties you see on screen collectively bring in billions of dollars in property taxes from homesteaded properties.

Proponents, though, argue the current system is regressive, putting a heavier burden on lower income residents.

And now some lawmakers are floating the ideas of higher sales taxes or even new fees to offset the revenue loss.

Travis, how do you see this playing out?

The House Select Committee on the property taxes is going to be hearing presentations from different groups.

How do you think this is going to play out?

Well, I'm not sure how it's going to entirely play out, but it's a conversation that we've had here on on the show even a few times before.

I hope we'll continue to have it, whether it was born or not, of a fight between maybe leaders in the in the state House versus the governor who came up with perhaps the property tax reductions or elimination instead of the, the, the sales tax reductions.

You know, that's whether that's whether that is or not.

I always go back to thinking about elderly and the poor, like my mom, who are living on fixed incomes.

They have a couple hundred extra dollars a month that they weren't paying the property taxes.

They could maybe take that money and buy groceries with it or put it towards the medications.

And so, you know, this is going to be a real interesting fight.

I know that there are forces who they want those tax dollars, and maybe we can cut some money, maybe that we are spending money with organizations as middlemen that are taking the rip off the top.

And so they, you know, they obviously have a vested interest in getting their portions of the tax money.

So if there is if DOGE later finds out there's money to be had there, um, then maybe that can come into play.

I mean, people like my mom already have an exemption.

We could end up, as Mitch said before, where we get to a situation, there's a bigger, you know, increase in the exemption.

And so I'd love to see that for veterans and for for the poor and for elderly.

And this is a this is a story, Mitch, that you've been covering extensively.

How do you see this playing between the House Speaker, Danny Perez, and the governor and all these different folks who are weighing in on it?

Yeah, it's going to be this is going to probably be on the ballot.

The big question is what it's going to actually say.

And we're so early on in the process.

You know, it is only September, right?

So this committee did meet for a couple times this week.

They need to meet a lot more.

And they're going to because, um, the governor said, you know, this is a campaign promise from him, basically.

Uh, Blaise Ingoglia, our new CFO, who is running hard on this, has been going to Hillsborough, Manatee all around and saying you're spending $200 million of wasteful spending or what is that actual wasteful spending?

We don't even know yet.

He says his DOJ's report will detail that in the coming weeks.

Um, but I can tell you they did.

When they were in St.

Petersburg, they asked a lot of questions about Dei.

They asked a lot of questions about resiliency, about climate issues.

So are those going to be things that are considered wasteful spending?

That's the predicate that the governor and the CFO are putting out there right now, so that when this resolution, this becomes a constitutional amendment is written up, um, and local officials say, oh my gosh, this is really going to hurt us.

They're going to say, no, no, no, we've documented you can afford this because you've been wasting all this money.

So it's a big political fight that is already, you know, happening lower we're at the lower local government levels, and it's a lot more details that we need to see along the way.

And Mitch is right, that's where the rubber meets the road to see some vague numbers from some interest group.

That's fine.

I want to see the real numbers from each of these county governments that's going to be impacted because, again, not not just worried about my mom.

I come from a firefighter family and I know we have to have we have to fund public safety.

We have to fund police, our infrastructure.

So if we can't afford those things, we might have to, you know, rethink it.

And one of the things that the panel of, I believe that there are 37 members on this committee, that they will be hearing, um, data and presentations from different groups.

They are going to be hearing from Florida next week, as well as the Florida Association of Counties.

The Florida League of Cities will also be presenting Lindsey as a representative from the St.

Pete League of Women Voters.

How important is it for organizations like yours to be able to provide data and information to those who are going to be making these decisions?

I mean, it's vital we create the vote for one one guide online for our constituents to be able to access information about who they're voting on and what they're voting on, about the amendments that are on the ballot when there's a constitutional amendment proposed.

Um, I think it's it's vital that any cut that is made is transparent.

Um, you're talking about auditing here.

And I think, you know, we have audit processes in place, but I don't think anyone disagrees that those can be improved.

There are internal audits already happening within government agencies.

Um, if the public wants more transparency, I think the league would be in support of that.

They should also be equitably applied to all of Floridians.

Um, if they're going to impact low income Floridians harsh more harshly than high income Floridians, is that something the public really wants to vote for?

And then we can't forget that we just recently had a change to the constitutional amendment process.

The league was staunchly against increasing the threshold of votes required to get a constitutional amendment through.

So when we talk about the reality of passing a constitutional amendment like this, can it be done?

The threshold is much higher than it's ever been before, and requires far over a majority of Floridians to vote in its favor.

So they need that for us to get across that threshold.

Everyone needs to be well informed.

And there's so many, so much reporting that has gone, gone on about this issue, talking to different people.

Man on the streets, of course.

Katelyn, how do you see all of this playing out?

Well, I think when it comes to affordability, it is interesting to me to if the state is really interested in helping homeowners, that there still is sort of this, this outlying issue about, um, homeowner insurance and, you know, bringing those costs down.

I know there was talk about addressing that in this last legislative session.

My understanding is that that there was really no movement on that and there was no right.

So I mean that to me, as a relatively new homeowner in this state, I mean, we may be able to drive down, you know, to the extent that exemptions can be expanded, the rate can be decreased.

Okay.

But for folks that are really hurting, maybe like your mother, I mean, they're still facing a lot of uncertainty with homeowner insurance.

I'm also really interested to see what the state's budget planners, analysts will say about.

There's been already forecasted, I think, a budget shortfall potentially coming up.

Right, so I know DeSantis has said like the state can cover it.

We have enough money this 50 billion potentially in lost revenue.

But, you know, how is that going to jive both with Doge and what our nonpartisan budget preparers say about what is already on the horizon?

Yeah, again, so many questions.

I saw Byron Donalds, you know, candidate for governor, talking in Tampa last week.

And he talked about he doesn't believe it should be a complete reduction.

He's for the idea, the principle of it, but a complete reduction.

He said we'd have to double the sales tax.

I mean, that's just something he said.

But like, you know, he's thinking already like, okay, where are we going to make the difference here in terms of if you get rid of this, I would say, you know, your thought about the constitutional amendment whenever it is proposed, You know, on the surface, it's probably going to pass, you know, whether it should or not, because the idea of a property tax where the people who vote, people who own homes is like, yeah, you know, our property taxes have gone really high, you know, so it's going to be, again, the campaign against it.

Uh, once it once we know what we're talking about here, it's going to be it's going to be formidable and it's going to be challenging because the idea of giving people a property tax break is generally supported.

Well, for for the record, I just want to be clear that, you know, if we can get a full blown, you know, property tax, you know, wipe out, I'd certainly be for that if it could work.

It could make sense.

And we could still fund enough priorities to limit government.

I'm fine with that.

I just I hate the idea that people, again, like my mom, have lived in a home for 40 or 50 years and they never.

And you hear this a lot from our side on the right.

They never truly own that home.

You always you always owe the tax man.

So lots of stuff happening in front of the committee next week.

And so it's definitely something that we will be following on, following up on.

Moving on to our next story, we turn now to a new federal rule raising concerns among immigrant and election advocates.

Nonprofits are no longer allowed to register new citizens to vote during naturalization ceremonies.

For years, nonprofits helped new citizens register to vote in the US.

it's work that advocates say have connected thousands of Floridians to the ballot box when they are most excited and likely to engage.

But now, a new policy from U.S.

Citizenship and Immigration Services limits voter registration at ceremonies to official election staff only.

Groups like the League of Women Voters and Florida Rising argued the ban creates barriers, especially for those with language or transportation challenges.

They say the ceremony itself is often the best and only opportunity to register.

Federal officials defend the change as a safeguard for neutrality and efficiency.

But immigrant advocates warn it could shrink turnout in immigrant communities and diminish what is often seen as a powerful first step in American civic life.

Lindsey, how do you feel about how does the League of Women Voters in St.

Pete feel about this?

This is something that has not gotten a lot of attention in the media.

It past, you know, several weeks ago.

How do you all see this?

Yeah, this is it's a devastating move to civic organizations like the League of Women Voters.

And I think I can speak on behalf of the state and the country.

When I say for the League of Women Voters that this is it's detrimental.

It's making it harder for new citizens to register to vote.

Um, it's it's an intimidation tactic, frankly, on the immigrant community.

And it's so important to understand who these civic organizations are.

Like the League of Women Voters, we're a group of volunteers.

We're a nonpartisan group of volunteers.

We've been we've partnered with USCIS for decades.

We've registered hundreds of thousands of new voters.

Imagine you've taken the citizenship exam.

You're you're finally an American citizen after doing all of this hard work.

And one of those rights that comes along with your citizenship is the right to vote.

And there's someone standing right there with your form to say, here and now.

You are truly an American.

Register to vote.

Someone who's volunteering.

Well, yeah.

Travis and Lindsay's been a fantastic advocate for the League of Women Voters.

I don't want to rain on her parade at all, but I'm going to come down on the total opposite end of the spectrum.

There's still going to be somebody who's there with a form to register.

They're going to be they're just going to be the the government officials within that jurisdiction there.

I'm for limiting organizations that could be construed as right, left, center, anybody other than, hey, here's your form.

Now, there's plenty of these folks are going to assimilate.

They're going to become part of the American, uh, you know, dream, and they're going to get out there and they're going to get their information from PBS.

Maybe, hopefully, maybe not.

Hopefully not NBC, MSNBC or CNN.

But but but you know, they're gonna get it from Fox.

They're gonna get it from PBS.

They're getting from from sources.

But logistically, when you have the families gathered, typically at these naturalization ceremonies, it's not just the person becoming the citizen, it's the whole family.

And so for a long time, folks who are in the process of voter engagement have said that this is a great opportunity to have the paperwork so that maybe the citizen.

I think it's great.

Citizen and maybe other relatives were not actively engaged.

Anyone in there influencing their partizan, you know, check the box for D, check the box for R. I don't want that.

I think it's I think it's a fair resolution to for something that's going on for far too long.

Perhaps I'd welcome you to come to our voter training because we do not tell anybody what boxes to check.

I'll gladly come sit in.

You should, you should.

And you know that that's really something that the give and take between so many folks on both sides of this issue, that some folks say that it's not a subject, that it's not an objective process, that there is some subjectivity from the folks who are helping the newly, uh, the new citizen become an American.

I guess that's the thought behind this, right?

I mean, because I, I didn't really know that much about it until it was on the topic, on the program.

And, um, I don't I didn't really see a lot.

I saw the executive order that came out or whatever.

You know, the federal government put this out about a month ago, less than a month ago.

Uh, and I don't really, you know, clearly understand I hear what you're saying in terms of, like, the thought, the fear of partizanship.

But as you just said, you know, you're not telling people how to put a D or R or NPA just.

Here you are.

Let's get you signed up right now.

If we've got supervisor of elections in there doing it already, are we kind of are we kind of actually stealing their focus that they could be out in the community doing other things?

What do you say about that?

The supervisor of elections love us.

They want us involved.

We actually, in Pinellas, get a private tour every year of our Supervisor of Elections facility so we can see their how their voting process is kept fair and free.

Um, the league we are, it's it's just I mean, let's let's return to your point.

We were just talking about dosage and efficiency.

This is a volunteer organization that's providing a government service that otherwise the government would be spending resources on.

I just I don't see the con to allowing a nonpartisan organization in there and to the the subjectivity point.

Uh, yeah.

Potentially every person is subjective and there might be a conversation had.

But to maintain a our 500 1C3 status and for any nonpartisan organization to be able to operate, we have to abide by very clear, nonpartisan standards.

And and we work hard to train our members to abide by those when they're in the when they're at those naturalization ceremonies.

And these are certainly important conversations that help us by bringing everyone to the table.

You know, one person, the other person can explain what the process is.

Um, and really dispel a lot of the perceptions that are out there, we're going to move on to our next big story.

It's a huge story we've been talking about.

It seems like forever.

Big changes are coming for baseball in Florida.

The Tampa Bay Rays will have new owners for the first time in over a decade.

Major League Baseball owners unanimously approved the sale this week.

And while many questions remain, one stands above the rest.

Where will the rays call home?

The Tampa Bay rays have played at St.

Pete's Tropicana Field for years.

Built in 1990, the stadium is often criticized for being outdated, poorly designed and hard to get to.

For fans, using it was made impossible by Hurricane Milton last year, which blew the roof off of Tropicana Field.

That storm forced the team to play this past season at Steinbrenner Field in West Tampa.

Now, a group led by Jacksonville developer Patrick Zalewski plans to take over the team.

The price tag around $1.7 billion.

Outgoing owner Stu Sternberg will retain a minority stake in the rays after more than two decades of control.

But where the rays will play remains a mystery.

Plans for a new stadium and redevelopment project in St.

Petersburg collapsed earlier this year.

Now attention has shifted back to potential sites in Tampa.

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred says that the new owners are expected to keep the team in the Tampa Bay area.

In the meantime, the rays are scheduled to return to the trop for the 2026 season.

Repairs to the ballpark are well underway, and the team's lease at the trop ends in 2028.

And Mitch, this is a story that has so many different layers.

I know that you're you've tried very hard to keep up with all of it, every twist and turn.

What's the latest?

Well, the latest in a way.

I mean, it's obviously new.

Ownership is a big deal.

First time in over 20 years, I believe, since Stu Sternberg was the main managing partner.

After taking over and he leaves and he leaves his legacy, which is being debated these days.

So excitement in the terms of the new ownership, but in terms of where they're going to play the big story, we don't know.

We don't know a thing here.

And you read a lot of things.

Oh, you know, Ken Hagen, Ybor City's the leader in the clubhouse.

Okay.

Uh, Commissioner Hagen, what's the evidence there of that?

Uh, who knows what's going to happen here?

The reason the rays don't have a stadium in Tampa right now is because there was never a funding source capable of doing that.

The Rays themselves were never willing to pay only so much money into a new ballpark themselves.

They ended up resigning, playing, going to the same area where they played forever that they never really wanted to there.

If you remember when this whole thing began in 2007, it was originally going to be on the on the waterfront in St.

Petersburg.

It was going to be then we looked at they have the ABC coalition was looking at these different sites around Tampa and Pinellas.

It was never going to be where they were at.

So in a way, you know, Sternberg, I think he was happy that storms happened and he got out of it like that.

So we're at ground zero or level zero again, where we go on this and where it happens, at least that we know that these guys, we think and they're gonna have a press conference, I think, in the next week or so to announce their plans and the like, that they've got resources that they're willing to invest in.

Um, but it's up to politicians.

You know, last year you had St.

Pete and Pinellas putting a lot of taxpayer money for this because it was part of a bigger project.

Right?

Um, you know, will that happen again in the Hillsborough County area?

You know.

And Mayor and Mayor Ken Welsh of St.

Pete has said no, that he will not come back to the negotiating table.

There was so much that was put into the research for the gas plant redevelopment.

Travis, you've been snickering and smiling noisemakers.

We could hand it out to to celebrate the fact that Stu Sternberg is not going to maybe be the face of the rays.

You know, baseball is supposed to be fun.

It's supposed to be a good time with your family.

This has become the story.

Much like we talked about the pier for years.

It's just become so fatiguing.

And, you know, I was I was the head of the chamber when we talked about it coming to you for the first time, I was among the raise 100 of business leaders that they tapped to support it, and I supported the effort.

And I still think that it probably makes sense whether the taxpayers are going to think that makes sense, and they want to fund it is an entirely different issue.

That's a good one for you to be out educating the public on that, because they're going to get the potentially going to get hosed.

And if we're trying to reduce property taxes, we're not going to be able to build a stadium.

Katelyn, what.

To say, one interesting element to me that I'm always curious about is the fact that if taxpayers are going to be ponying up some money for this, regardless of wherever it is in the Tampa Bay region.

My understanding, too, is that the team has struggled to fill stadiums for years, and so is it.

Like, I mean, this.

Would be a smaller stadium.

That's literally.

The answer to.

That.

No, it's a great point.

That is a huge point.

And that is why, you know, you can talk about the Stu Sternberg legacy.

I think the rays did so much with so little in terms of their resources, because that's the big overarching story both in Tampa and Miami, is that these these two teams down here in Florida have not drawn attendance wise?

Well at all.

They've been amongst the worst teams in attendance forever.

And you know, you hear these arguments, oh, it's the bridge and people getting over their, you know, St.

Petersburg.

I think it's bunk.

I think that, you know, I wouldn't I've always felt that Sternberg was justified if he wanted to move the team to Orlando, because whether they can make it work there or not, who knows?

Now, MLB does not want that because Tampa Bay is like the 13th or 14th biggest media market in the country, and that's a big market.

You don't want to lose that.

So there's still MLB is still very committed to this area here.

And so everybody wants it to work.

But it hasn't worked so far.

I hope they stay.

I hope they do well and I hope we get to see that new leadership.

Is it West Tampa Stadium, is it Ybor City?

It's I think Tampa is a better location.

Of course that's that's because I live on what this side of the bridge.

Well, in the time that we have left, we want to make sure that each of you have a chance to talk about some of the other big stories that you're covering.

Katelyn, I'd like to start with you.

Yeah, so I am tracking as as you may know, we are, um, staring down another federal shutdown.

So I am tracking that and working on a story again, looking at what might be different in this shutdown, what might be affected.

There's some the executive has some discretion in these continuing resolutions.

And so we're always looking especially in hurricane season.

Right?

Like what will be funded what won't be.

So look out for that in the next few days...Mitch State politics, it looks like Hillsborough County's own former state senator, now Lieutenant Governor Jay Collins, may be getting into the race for governor for the Republican nomination, challenging the frontrunner right now, Byron Donalds.

Um, it seems like that's going to happen.

He's been giving interviews everywhere and it's like ready to go.

Whether he's the man that Ron DeSantis wants to be the guy.

It seems like that would be the case.

Uh, but, you know, Byron Donalds has a huge advantage right now, and he's got that endorsement from Donald Trump that's going to take him a long way...Lindsey, Yeah, so the League of Women Voters will be hosting a statewide day of action on Sunday or Saturday, October 4th.

All Floridians are welcome to participate.

So do some googling.

Join your local league, and we will be strategizing around the unnecessary redistricting that's taking place right now across the country.

But in Florida, particularly to the St.

Pete area.

Floridians overwhelmingly supported an amendment in 2010.

October 4th is the day to go.

Yes...Travis.

Well, I'm taking a look at something.

It's not as sexy as the governor's race.

That's always a big one.

But I'm looking at a lot more closely at judges races and one in particular here locally.

We had a former prosecutor accused of prosecutorial misconduct who was alleged to have witnessed tampered, and eventually the case was overturned.

It was a very high profile case, the stop sign case.

Many of you may remember that your viewers may.

But I'm going to be and I've I've had personal interactions with people in that race.

We've only got one candidate in it, so maybe someone else will get in it.

But but I'm going to be illuminating a lot more judges I'm going to work on not just not just that race, but but more of them.

And I hope that again, people will get with the league, get with these other organizations, find out.

Dig deeper.

Don't just take the candidate for their word.

Go ahead and dig deep, or take.

Don't just take the candidate, the word or the or the few people they surround themselves with.

Go and look for yourself.

Thank you so much, all of you, for coming in and weighing in on all these issues.

Thanks again to our panel this week.

Travis Horn, Lindsay Polega- Quigley, Katelyn Farrell, and Mitch Perry.

On a final note, we are four weeks away from the runoff in Tampa.

Special election in District Five.

The deadline to register to vote is this coming Monday, September the 29th.

The city council seat was formerly held by the late Gwendolyn Henderson.

14 candidates were on that September 9th ballot.

The top two vote getters in alphabetical order are Thomas Scott and Nia Young.

Their runoff is October the 28th.

For more information, you can visit hillsborough.gov.

District Five includes strategic areas of the bay, including downtown Tampa, Ybor City where local decisions can have impact across the region.

So we will be watching this closely.

On behalf of the entire team here at WEDU, thank you so much for watching.

We'll see you next week.