by Beth Kassab | Jun 22, 2026 | City Commission, Historic Preservation, News, Zoning and Development
Commissioners Voice Support for Split of Merrywood's Lakefront Lot
A vote on the lot split is scheduled for Wednesday’s City Commission meeting. Whether or not the split is approved, it appears Merrywood will be demolished.
June 22, 2026
By Beth Kassab
The City Commission appears poised to grant special permission this week for a lakefront lot to be split into two when attorney Tara Tedrow asks to divide the Merrywood property to allow for her to build a new house on Lake Osceola.
Three out of five commissioners signaled during a Monday afternoon work session that they favored the lot split that would only apply to the 3.67-acre parcel at 1020 Palmer Ave. where the largest and most ornate residence by architect James Gamble Rogers II stands, at least for now.
The more than 80-year-old house is likely to be demolished after Tedrow solicited help from historic preservation advocates to find a buyer for that half of the lot and no one came forward with an offer.
“We really tried to get the word out nationally, but certainly locally to anybody who was interested,” Tedrow, a land use attorney at the Lowndes law firm, said. “There’s a lot of people who were interested in the idea of it. Then they came, and they said no to the scope and scale of renovation, or just the cost.”
Mick Night of Sotheby’s International Realty joined the work session by phone and said he’s shown Merrywood to 100 or so people, including what he characterized as 15 to 20 people with the potential to buy the property. But no offers came in.
“You’re dealing with, aside from the condition of the house, you’re dealing with functional obsolescence, the design of the house … you know, Gamble Rogers was notorious for building lakefront homes that didn’t even take advantage of the lakefront views,” Night said. “… you’ve got a compartmentalized floor plan, you’ve got a formal floor plan, you’ve got a kitchen that is, you know, 10 by 10. I can go on and on and on, but regardless, you’re dealing with structural issues, mold issues, ongoing water intrusion issues and other things.”
He said he’s been involved in all six home sales in Winter Park that have closed above $10 million and predicted the Merrywood lot would be the seventh. He suggested the value of the land alone would be about $13 million for the 3.76 acres.
Cathy Gilmer, who now owns the house along with her brother after their parents died, wrote a letter to city officials explaining that her parents intentionally kept the house off the city’s historic register and that “the house (and the land it sits on) was my brother and I’s inheritance from them.” She said in recent years the house became “unlivable” after water pipes burst and a lack of heat or hot water because the system still runs on oil.
“Over the last year we have looked into what it would take to restore, preserve or even make the house livable again and the unfortunate fact is that we (and even the most well-intentioned preservationists who have toured the home) do not have the finances to undertake such a project,” she said. “The truth of the matter is that every day the house remains standing costs money we don’t have, falls into further disrepair and is not contributing anything to the community. It is basically a waste.”
She said her family has also been upset by recent break-ins at the home.
“On top of all of this we have had to deal with several break-ins and thefts from people who feel they have the right to take memories and pieces of our family’s history, which for anyone that has experienced anything like this knows, is an emotionally taxing experience,” Gilmer wrote. “While this might just be a house to some people, it was the house I grew up in; my family’s home. A house which everyone now has an opinion on and feels they have a right to, and yet, nobody seems to care about the people that lived and grew up in it.”
Tedrow, who grew up in a house next to Merrywood, has had the property under contract since August. She has said she would like to divide the property in two and sell one lot while building a home for her large family on the other.
The change she is requesting to the city’s comprehensive plan, a state-required document that details how a local government will manage its land and grow over a number of years, would not permit any other lakefront lot splits in Winter Park because no other existing lots meet the size requirements or zoning conditions such as 150 feet of frontage on both the lake and the street.
Commissioner Warren Lindsey, who along with Commissioner Elizabeth Ingram voiced concerns about approving the lot split, noted that there are 360 lakefront lots in the city and at least three others are also larger than three acres. Fifteen or so are greater than two acres, he said, referring to statistics he asked Planning & Zoning Director Allison McGillis to research.
While he said he cares about historic preservation, Lindsey said his larger concern is that more lakefront homeowners will come to the city seeking comprehensive plan amendments to divide their valuable lots. He called the prospect a “slippery slope.”
“Other properties may not be exactly the same,” he said. “But they could make a credible argument that they should receive consideration.”
Ingram said she was disappointed by what appeared to be a doomed fate for Merrywood and the idea that the decision came down to money rather than historic value and character.
“People just want to get the most money out of it,” she said. “Personally, I feel that can be a misconception for these houses … it does contribute to people not wanting to put their house on the historic register.”
Mayor Sheila DeCiccio along with commissioners Kris Cruzada and Craig Russell appeared in favor of the lot split and persuaded by the idea that keeping the lot at its current size would allow a buyer to knock down Merrywood and build a more than 56,000-square-foot home in its place. That would be larger than the house just down the street at 926 Palmer Ave. — dubbed “The Odyssey” by owners Marc and Sharon Hagle — that is some 40,000 square feet.
“What you’re going to get is if you get a mega house on there, you’re going to get those great big green boxes, like in the front of the Hagle’s house, that are commercial … that are so noisy that that’s the whole thing you can see when you come down the avenue,” DeCiccio said referring to the utility boxes installed on Palmer to support the large home.
Russell said he agreed that such a large house out was generally out of scale with most of the other development in Winter Park.
“It’s very delicate and unfortunate,” Russell said. “So it stinks that it’s come to this. A 56,000-square-foot-house? That’s like Drake’s house or 50 Cent’s house.”
Cruzada said he “struggled” with the decision, but ultimately reasoned the lot split is good for the city’s tax base as well as keeping home sizes in scale.
DeCiccio said she hoped a survey underway by an architecture firm for the city to catalog what historic houses remain and what has already been demolished will help in formulating a plan to save other significant homes before they “get to the point Merrywood did.”
“That’s what I see as the goal,” she said. “And this is a hard lesson that we’re having with this house, but at least it woke us up that we now have to do something.”
A vote is scheduled on the lot split request at Wednesday’s City Commission meeting.
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by Beth Kassab | Jun 22, 2026 | Arts and Culture, City Commission, News
Blue Bamboo Seeks Rent Decrease or Other Changes to Lease
The music venue opened in the city building that was once a library last year but has failed to secure upper floor tenants to help cover rent that is scheduled to increase in August
June 22, 2026
By Beth Kassab
The Blue Bamboo will ask city commissioners this week for rent relief, changes to its lease that could allow for a private school or a commercial tenant on its upper floors or other changes that Executive Director Jeff Flowers says is necessary to sustain the group that transformed the old city library into a performing arts venue.
A City Commission work session is scheduled for Thursday afternoon to discuss a series of options proposed by Flowers.
In August, Blue Bamboo’s lease on the city-owned building is scheduled to double from $11,000 per month to $22,000 per month.
“Current earned revenue from performances and traditional nonprofit arts tenancy alone is insufficient to sustain this increase,” reads a memorandum from Flowers to the city.
A reckoning over the lease is playing out a year after the nonprofit held its first performance in the city space followed quickly by upheaval when Central Florida Vocal Arts, the original tenant slated to take the second floor and help pay the rent, walked away from the deal and then, a few months later, the death of Blue Bamboo founder Chris Cortez from brain cancer.
Since then, Flowers, a former Maitland city commissioner and Blue Bamboo board member who financed the early construction of the new venue, took over leadership of the small nonprofit and has tried to secure new tenants to occupy the second and third floors.
His recent proposal for an artificial-intelligence-driven private school run by a Winter Park couple is still an option, according to the memorandum, though the city attorney has suggested the lease with the city would need to be modified to allow for a school. The City Commission was scheduled to consider the school option in May, but Flowers pulled the item from the agenda to allow time for this week’s work session.
Flowers said the Blue Bamboo has hosted nearly 200 events so far and invested $2.3 million, including more than $1 million in grants, in renovating the building. Orange County pledged nearly $1 million in the form of a Tourist Development Tax grant toward the project.
City spokeswoman Clarissa Howard confirmed the Blue Bamboo remains current on its lease payments to date.
Any changes to future rent amounts or other changes to the lease will be a policy decision made by the Commission.
The elected officials could decide to offer the Blue Bamboo a rent reduction or changes to the lease that would make it easier for the organization to sublease out the second and third floors. Or the Commission could decide to hold to the original lease and potentially sell the building or use it for a different purpose if the Blue Bamboo can’t continue to meet the terms.
The arrangement is likely to be complicated by intensified budget pressures facing Winter Park and other local governments as Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Legislature are pushing voters to approve property tax cuts on the November ballot, a measure that would result in significant revenue reductions for cities and counties.
Mayor Sheila DeCiccio was the lone vote against the Blue Bamboo lease in 2024 after she questioned the group’s financial wherewithal to follow through on the terms it proposed to the city.
Cortez and Flowers assured the commission at the time that the group’s business plan was viable.
Then-Commissioner Todd Weaver championed the Blue Bamboo from the dais and joined the Blue Bamboo’s board of directors after he left office and is now listed as its vice president.
Awarding the lease for the old library to the Blue Bamboo ended the city’s years-long quest to find a use for the prominent building left vacant after the Library & Events Center opened on Morse Boulevard at the end of 2021.
Before the music venue made a play for the space on New England Avenue and visible from S.R. 426, Rollins College was the frontrunner to get the building and repurpose it into a new art museum.
Now the building could be vacant once again Flowers conceded in his memorandum to the city.
The seventh and final option presented by Flowers is for the Blue Bamboo to relocate elsewhere.
On Thursday, commissioners are slated to discuss the matter but are prohibited from taking votes during a work session. The lease is likely to be up for an official vote sometime this summer.
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by Beth Kassab | Jun 17, 2026 | City Commission, News, Police and Public Safety, Taxes
Early Retirements at City Hall. Plus Winter Park Nine to Reopen and Micromobility Ordinance in the Works
The cost cutting has already started ahead of budget talks next month. Meanwhile, the city has almost finished work on the new greens at the WP9 and new rules for electric bikes and scooters are in the works
June 17, 2026
By Beth Kassab
As talk of budget cuts swirl around local governments amid intensifying debate over the property tax amendment that will appear on the November ballot, five employees of the city of Winter Park have taken an early retirement package.
The packages, offered, as part of a cost-cutting effort, will reduce the City Hall headcount to 533.
Rene Cranis
The most high-profile, so far, is City Clerk Rene Cranis, who is well-known for her work managing city elections, city records and helping to run and document public meetings among other duties.
She has served Winter Park for three decades and has been active with the Florida Association of City Clerks.
Last month, the City Commission appointed Deputy Clerk Kim Breland, who was hired by Winter Park in 2017, to the lead role once Cranis retires at the end of June.
City spokeswoman Clarissa Howard said a cost savings figure from the five retirements will be evaluated as the city begins its annual budget process next month.
David Zusi, director of the city’s water and wastewater utility, recently retired, but his departure was already planned after 29 years of service. Commissioners recognized his dedication and contributions to maintaining the city’s water system during a May proclamation for “David Zusi Day.” Jason Riegler was appointed to take over the water utility for the city.
Winter Park Nine to Reopen
A photo courtesy of the city of Winter Park shows work underway at the Winter Park Nine.
City Manager Randy Knight said the Winter Park Nine is slated to reopen next month after the wrong chemical damaged seven of nine greens.
The city spent about $100,000 to redo all nine greens plus the putting green near Casa Feliz. Each of the greens were tilled to remove the dead grass, reshaped and then sprigged with Tif-Eagle Bermuda Grass, Howard said.
She said the new grass is of a higher quality than was used during the last renovation of the course.
The city is also trying out a new maintenance company to care for the courses. Knight said the cost of up to $197,000 for four months is about equal to the cost of doing the work in-house. He said the cost — about $50,000 per month — covers salaries for a seven-day maintenance operation, fuel, equipment repairs and maintenance, fertilization and pesticides.
Changes for E-Bikes and Scooters
City Commissioner Craig Russell is urging his colleagues on the City Commission to move forward quickly with new rules for riders of electric bikes and scooters in the wake of the death of a 13-year-old boy in Lake Nona who was hit by a truck on his e-bike on Mother’s Day last month.
Russell has pushed education and safety related to the devices in the past and held a community meeting on the topic earlier this year.
Commissioner Craig Russell leads a community meeting about electric bike and scooter safety earlier this year.
He wants to see new rules on the books for police to enforce.
“My interest is to have something before the start of the school year in August,” Russell said at a recent meeting.
Other commissioners agreed and said they would consider a new ordinance this summer even though Orange County’s ordinance is not yet done.
Howard said the city attorney is still working on the draft ordinance, but some potential changes could include:
- Increasing the age of riders who are required to wear helmets from 16 to 18.
- Establishing a speed limit for electric scooters and bikes on sidewalks, which would be more restrictive than the state law that requires a speed limit of 10 miles per hour only within 50 feet of a pedestrian.
- Keeping the prohibition of the devices from the Central Business District such as Park Avenue, New England Avenue and Orange Avenue.
- Starting a new system of city-based fines (similar to a parking ticket) for violations of the ordinance. This came in response from discussion among city commission members who want to be able to enforce the rules, but protect minors from infractions that could remain on their records.
- The potential to impound scooters and bikes as a result of violations to the ordinance.
A draft of the proposed changes is likely to be considered by the City Commission in the coming weeks.
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by Beth Kassab | Jun 11, 2026 | City Commission, Election, News, Taxes
Lawsuit Filed Today Challenges Florida Property Tax Amendment
Winter Park commissioners did not indicate on Wednesday whether or not they would join the legal challenge against the measure that would cut in to both the revenue and autonomy of local governments in Florida
June 11, 2026
By Beth Kassab
City Attorney Kurt Ardaman on Wednesday told the Winter Park City Commission about a legal challenge against the ballot amendment pushed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature to radically reduce property tax revenue for local governments.
Ardaman said the commissioners could join — as a group or as individuals — the lawsuit filed Thursday morning by Jamie Cole, one of Florida’s most well-known local government attorneys for his work on previous ballot amendments and cases protecting home rule with the law firm Weiss, Serota, Helfman, Cole & Bierman.
“Most local governments in the state of Florida do not want to be a plaintiff and we don’t need to go into those reasons here,” Ardaman said. “But they are looking for individuals as well.”
None of the commissioners on the dais — Commissioner Kris Cruzada was absent — offered any comment or indicated their thinking. Winter Park is projected to lose at least $5.6 million in homestead tax starting in 2028 if the required 60% of voters approve the amendment.
DeSantis is attempting to make property tax reform a key part of his legacy before he is term-limited out of office at the end of the year and has openly talked about using his veto pen against those who don’t support his agenda. Winter Park is waiting to see if two projects survive the governor’s red ink.
Attorney Jamie Cole
The lawsuit filed in the Second Judicial Court in Leon County on Thursday names as defendants Secretary of State Cord Byrd and Attorney General James Uthmeier. A spokeswoman for Byrd said his office does not comment on pending litigation. The Voice also reached out to Uthmeier for comment, but has not yet received a response.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit so far are Save Our Voters from Misleading Ballot Language Inc., a new nonprofit that just filed with the state of Florida this month and lists the chief operating officer of Cole’s law firm as its incorporator, as well as Thomas Campenni, a voter in Martin County who previously served as the mayor of Stuart and Michael Davey, a voter in Miami-Dade County who previously served as mayor of the Village of Key Biscayne.
The legal challenge doesn’t argue against the general concept of reducing homesteaded property taxes, but asserts the amendment slated to go before voters is inaccurate and misleading.
“Plaintiffs recognize the great importance of property tax reform, and understand the Legislature’s zeal to enact changes as quickly as possible,” it reads. “However, on an issue as important as this, voters are entitled to a fair, clear, accurate and nonmisleading ballot statement to assist them in making this critical decision.”
Cole currently represents the city of Weston and said on a recent law firm podcast that there are multiple legal problems with the amendment that aims to increase the homestead property tax exemption to $250,000 in 2028 as well as limit the growth in the values of non-homestead properties.
He led the challenge against a property tax reform amendment in 2007 that resulted in it being taken off the ballot.
Cole said the title of the 2026 amendment is just one issue that violates the legal standard for the ballot language to be neutral.
The title is, “Save Our Homes from Excessive Property Taxes.”
He equated the wording to a “clear political slogan.”
“When you read it, it reads like a political flyer you would get in the mail,” he said.
He said the summary also fails to be neutral enough and doesn’t accurately explain what the amendment would do. It leaves out, for instance, that the exemption would first only be increased to $150,000 in 2027 before $250,000 in 2028.
The language goes on to say that voting yes means “ensuring funding for core services” such as public safety, education, infrastructure and natural resources.
“The problem is that it does not ensure funding for those core services,” Cole said. “It does the opposite.”
The amendment takes away from property taxes, the most crucial source of local revenue for local governments, and doesn’t offer any replacement.
He predicted that many local governments would raise their property tax rates and also raise other fees to make up for the loss.
Such moves, he said, would also contradict wording that claims to protect small businesses.
While the measure would limit the growth in annual assessments on non-homesteaded property to 5% instead of the 10% cap in place today, that would apply to far more than small businesses.
“What this really does to small business is if they own a piece of property their tax rate will most certainly go up … that’s hurting small businesses,” he said.
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by Beth Kassab | Jun 5, 2026 | Arts and Culture, City Commission, Election, Library, News, Police, Taxes, Uncategorized
What Does Winter Park Stand to Lose if Property Tax Cuts Pass?
Voters are expected to decide a ballot amendment in November initiated by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature that could dramatically alter how local governments operate
June 5, 2026
By Beth Kassab
What does Winter Park stand to lose if voters approve the plan by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Legislature to dramatically reduce property taxes?
A picture of the potential fallout is becoming more clear just days after the Florida House and Senate voted to send the measure to the November ballot. Here’s what we know so far:
How much money will Winter Park lose?
Let’s break down the numbers.
In 2025, Winter Park collected about $48.5 million in taxes, according to Orange County Tax Collector Scott Randolph. The bulk of that, or about $41.1 million, is what is targeted by the state ballot amendment. Those are the dollars collected on real property — houses and businesses — based on that property’s assessed value.
Tax money that comes in from real property is divided into two categories: Homestead (the houses people live in and claim as their primary residence) and non-homestead (commercial properties, businesses, second homes or rental properties or other land).
The change ordered by the Legislature garnering the most attention is a reduction in what cities and counties will collect on homesteaded property. (Note: The Legislature revised DeSantis’ proposal, which would have also reduced taxes that support schools. So the new rules would not apply to school taxes.)
Winter Park City Hall
Winter Park collected $19.8 million in 2025 from homesteaded properties. If voters approve the proposed increase to the homestead exemption from $50,000 today to $250,000 in 2028 then those collections would drop to about $14.2 million, according to Randolph’s projections. The reduction would first be felt, to a lesser extent, by cities and counties in 2027 when the homestead exemption would jump to to $150,000 before increasing to the full $250,000 the following year.
So that’s a loss of $5.6 million based on today’s numbers or a 28% reduction in collections on homesteaded properties. The overall hit to the city’s tax roll appears closer to 12% because stormwater fees ($6.3 million), tangible property taxes ($1 million on equipment and furnishings in businesses or rental properties) and non-homesteaded property taxes ($21.2 million) aren’t affected by the change to homestead exemptions.
How big of a deal is that $5.6 million loss?
Well, thumb through this year’s Winter Park budget and you can get an idea of what $5.6 million means in real terms:
- This year the city spent $5 million more just to cover basic cost-of-living and 3% merit raises for city staff, including more competitive wages for police and additional emergency call center staff as the city took on dispatch duties for Maitland.
- The entire capital improvement budget for the Community Development Agency, which is funded entirely through property taxes, totaled $5.7 million. That included $3.2 million to fix drainage and infrastructure problems on West Fairbanks Avenue, Canton Avenue and the MLK Park basin. Another $2.5 million went to the Park Avenue Refresh project, which includes new street lighting, sidewalks, landscaping, underground infrastructure and other work.
- The rebuilding of Fire Station 62 on Lakemont Avenue is estimated at $5.8 million, a project the city put off again this year because it didn’t have the funds.
Mayor Sheila DeCiccio predicted noticeable cuts will be made if the new proposal goes into effect.
“This will be devastating,” DeCiccio said after the Legislature’s vote. “We will be assessing what services the city may have to cut.”
The entire city budget is $233 million this year. That includes the two utilities that fund themselves with a combined nearly $100 million in what customers pay for water and electric service.
Beyond that, the single biggest source of revenue for the city is property taxes.
Those taxes are the biggest contributor to the city’s almost $90 million general fund, which is responsible for all of the front-line services like police and fire rescue (the two biggest expenses), parks and recreation and public works.
“Property taxes are continuing to row the boat for the city’s fiscal picture, rising 7.6% and accounting for 44% of General Fund revenue,” reads the budget document from last year. “This stabilizing force is what keeps most city services humming. Its rate of growth is sufficient to support the existing level of city services, but it is limited in what it can provide in excess of just staying on course.”
So is that all?
No. There’s more. The ballot amendment would also hamstring cities and counties by limiting future growth in the amount of taxes collected on non-homesteaded properties.
The cap on annual assessment increases for those properties — anything from a Publix grocery store to an Amazon warehouse to a vacation home — would drop from 10% to 5%.
That represents future savings for billion-dollar corporations and less future revenue for local governments to use for police, fire rescue, roads and everything else property taxes pay for.
Growth in property values is how a city like Winter Park, which has enjoyed a brisk real estate market for years, has managed to increase its budget without raising the tax rate for 18 years.
A little more than half of the city’s total ad valorem collections or about $21.2 million come from non-homesteaded properties owned by everyone from small business owners to deep-pocketed corporations who will save money as a result of the new cap.
The exact amount of future unrealized growth is hard to quantify, city officials say.
But this chart from the budget shows the importance of the increase in assessed values year to year: 
But even before the new ballot amendment was in play, city officials were beginning to warn of a softening in that growth and the need for belt-tightening.
“The General Fund is seeing continued increases in property tax revenue due to increasing valuations in existing real estate which has traditionally been the primary support of the majority of the growth in revenues over time,” the budget reads. “However, this revenue source is continuing its slowing trend and could indicate tighter years ahead.”
If approved, the new cap will exacerbate that picture.
What else does the ballot amendment do?
In addition to reducing revenue cities and counties have to work with, the measure would also restrict how that money is spent.
Property taxes would only be able to pay for items that fall in one of the following buckets, according to a Senate press release:
- Public safety, including law enforcement, fire service, and emergency medical service
- Education and public schools (additional funds beyond operational expenses covered by school board taxes)
- Road and bridge construction and maintenance, stormwater control, and other infrastructure projects
- Natural resource projects, including flood control measures
- Retirement benefits of local government employees
- Bond obligations
- Operations and administration of county officers and commissioners and municipalities, and approved expenditures
Assistant City Manager Michelle del Valle, who will be in the top role next year when the changes begin to take effect after City Manager Randy Knight retires, said city staff is already starting to assess what may or may not fit into those categories. Some items in question, she said, are considered core services that residents have come to expect.
“The biggest one that we’re going to have to start working on is Parks and Recreation,” she said. “But also the library … all of our cultural partnerships.”
The Winter Park Library & Events Center.
This year the Parks budget is nearly $15 million. The city spent about $2.4 million on its library this year. And more than $500,000 went to cultural and nonprofit organizations through the general fund and the CRA such as Mead Botanical Gardens, Winter Park Historical Association, Winter Park Day Nursery, United Arts, Blue Bamboo, Polasek Museum, Enzian Theater, Heritage Center, Welbourne Day Nursery and Winter Park Playhouse.
DeCiccio said the attempt to cut local budgets is an extension of a longstanding effort by Tallahassee to chip away at the power of local governments.
“Where are people supposed to go?” DeCiccio asked. “Are they supposed to go to the state to complain about potholes in the roads? It’s very, very frustrating.”
The proposed ballot amendment, she said, strips voters of a layer of autonomy and accountability to closest to where they live.
It’s more often the city and county commissioners vs. state officials who run into residents at the grocery store or in the school pick-up line and hear their frustrations about uneven sidewalks or broken streetlights, a desire for more shade trees or a plea to help the arts.
“What about libraries? What about playgrounds? They are taking away our ability to fund these items,” DeCiccio said. “We have the No. 1 children’s library in the state that’s now open seven days a week. How are we going to keep paying for that?”
What can cities do in response?
Even before the proposal to cut property taxes, cities like Winter Park began raising prices on everything from after-school programs run by the parks department to stormwater fees and electric rates to compensate for rising costs in recent years.
For example, at the most recent City Commission meeting, commissioners approved a contract extension for Waste Pro, which provides garbage collection. The city doesn’t make money off the contract — it’s a pass through — but residents’ monthly rates have shot up from $14.99 in 2022 to $22.22 in 2025.
And residents could pay more in other ways.
Cities and counties could choose to increase the millage rate on properties — something Winter Park has avoided for 18 years — to blunt the effect of the proposed changes.
“If county and municipal governments raise millage rates to recoup the lost revenue, that would result in higher property taxes on the portion of the value of homestead properties that remains taxable, as well as on the many properties that do not qualify for the substantially higher exemption, including the properties of new Florida residents and second homeowners, commercial properties (including apartment complexes), and industrial and agricultural properties,” reads an analysis from the conservative-leaning Tax Foundation. “This would make Florida’s property tax system far less neutral and disincentivize the purchase of certain classes of property.”
Or, the foundation argues, policymakers could choose to increase the sales tax to help make up for lost property taxes.
“Since Florida’s tax structure includes no individual income tax, sales taxes and property taxes are the primary sources of state and local tax revenue,” the group said. “Replacing the lost property tax revenue with sales tax revenue would require substantially higher local and/or state sales tax rates, a sweeping expansion of the sales tax base (likely to more than just final personal consumption), or a combination of these approaches.”
Winter Park doesn’t set the sales tax or the local gas tax. That’s done by a combination of state and county officials. But it does share in sales and gas tax revenue, though that revenue is far less than property tax revenue for the city.
Winter Park’s 2026 budget included $5.6 million from sales tax and just under $1 million from the local option gas tax, a fraction of the more than $41 million it received in property taxes.
What happens next?
As with any ballot amendment, there is likely to be litigation and fights over the ballot language.
But once it makes the November ballot, at least 60% of voters must approve it in order for it to pass. That’s a heavy lift in Florida.
In 2024, there were six constitutional amendments on the Florida ballot and all but two failed to capture the required 60% approval. That was the year an amendment to legalize recreational marijuana and to limit government interference with abortion received 56% and 57% of the vote, respectively, but fell short of the 60% threshold.
But an amendment related to property tax exemptions passed with 66% of the vote. It provided for an annual inflation adjustment for the value of the homestead property tax exemption that applies to non-school taxes.
Two years earlier, though, a 2022 amendment to increase the homestead exemption for public service workers including teachers, law enforcement officers and others failed with 59% of the vote.
What about Winter Park’s next budget?
City officials say they still plan to present a proposed budget to the City Commission in July on the typical schedule.
The next budget is based on the 2026 tax roll and would not be impacted by the proposed changes, which aren’t set to take effect until next year if they win voter approval.
But officials say they are cognizant of what potentially lies ahead and are taking that into account.
At the recent commission meeting, for example, DeCiccio balked at spending a few thousand dollars on a historic preservation consultant, at least for now, because of the potential cuts.
The City Commission usually begins to hear public input on the budget in August and must adopt it by the end of September before the start of the next fiscal year in October.
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