Winter Haven speaker: cutting homestead property tax would force deep service reductions

An Unidentified Speaker told Winter Haven residents and businesses that proposed reductions to the homestead ad valorem property tax would remove roughly $10.5 million from the city's finances and require difficult choices about municipal services.

The speaker said Winter Haven's local government budget is about $250,000,000 and that the general fund is roughly $80,000,000. "Property tax in Winter Haven generates $31,000,000," the speaker said, and added that "Police and fire cost $34,000,000," noting that property tax revenue does not fully cover those public-safety costs.

The speaker warned that proposals to reduce or completely eliminate the homestead ad valorem property tax would leave a gap in Winter Haven of about $10,500,000. "If that something like that were to happen and there's no plan to replace it with other revenue...that means I have to figure out how do I cut 10 and a half million dollars out of that $80,000,000 budget?" the speaker said.

The speaker listed possible areas for cuts if replacement revenue is not identified, naming parks, road paving and code enforcement as examples, and added that law enforcement budgets are harder to reduce under the current proposals. The remarks repeatedly emphasized uncertainty about which exact services would be reduced and said there was no replacement-revenue plan at the time of the remarks.

No formal motion or vote was recorded in the transcript. The comments framed the fiscal tradeoffs city officials say they would face if homestead-ad-valorem collections were sharply reduced or eliminated.