Palm Beach County officials warn proposed state tax amendments could cut up to $1 billion from local services

Todd Von Laeran, the county’s chief deputy administrator for finance, told the Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners on Monday that a set of pending state proposals to amend Florida’s Constitution could sharply reduce the county’s property-tax revenue and force deep cuts to local services.

Von Laeran walked the board through eight House joint resolutions and related bills that the Florida House select committee on property taxes advanced in October and November. The measures include proposals to eliminate non-school homestead levies, phase out non-school homestead levies over 10 years, exempt homeowners age 65 and older from non-school homestead levies, expand "portability" rules that transfer homestead-derived tax benefits when owners move, and limit annual assessment increases. Von Laeran presented county estimates for each measure and noted that the state’s revenue estimating office had produced slightly different scores.

The county’s calculations showed large differences between the proposals. Von Laeran said one House joint resolution (HJR 201) that would eliminate non-school homestead taxes could reduce the county general fund by roughly $607 million and, using a state revenue estimate, could be as large as roughly $963 million. Other proposals showed lower but still…