The idea of eliminating or reducing property taxes on homesteads via a constitutional amendment is still being kicked around in Tallahassee.
Local officials are watching the proposal and heard a presentation of what some the effects could be at this year’s Polk County Commission annual retreat this week.
Although this affects only part of the tax base involving owner-occupied homes that are claimed as a primary residence. the numbers are significant.
Based on the assumption that one of the proposals will be on the 2026 ballot, here’s what the figures look like.
If it is the proposal to provide an additional $50,000 homestead exemption, the amount of revenue for the voter-approved Environmental Lands Program would be reduced by $569.863 from the $14.4 million without the cut
However. the effect of the proposal to eliminate. all property taxes on homesteads would cause a projected loss of $3.7 million in new revenue.
So far neither of these measures has been placed on the ballot and even if some version reaches the ballot, the measure would have to be approved by at least 60 percent of voters.
This one is worth following as legislators convene a special session later this year,
Stay tuned.

In addition to the hundreds of millions of dollars the Polk Regional Water Cooperative is spending to plumb the depths of the Floridan aquifer, it is poised to spend $225,000 to further explore tapping the Peace River.
Wednesday the PRWC’s board voted to approve a memorandum of understanding with Mosaic to investigate the feasibility of someday using one of its clay-settling areas as a reservoir.
The reservoir, which was first proposed last year, would be located on mined land south of Fort Meade and east of the Peace River.
PRWC Executive Director Eric DeHaven said the study, which will not begin until the next fiscal year. will look at the feasibility of building a pipeline along a Mosaic railroad spur between a section of the river near the Hardee County line and a treatment plant and ultimately the reservoir.
He said there is no estimate of what the cost will be for the construction of the facilities and the use of Mosaic’s property.
How much water will be available will depend on an updated study of how much water can be withdrawn from the river during high-flow periods that is being conducted by the Southwest Florida Water Management District.
PRWC officials are monitoring the study.
Meanwhile, a settlement has been proposed in the dispute involving PRWC, Tampa Bay Water and Swiftmud over how much water the cooperative could potentially withdraw from the Alafia River. Any withdrawals would not occur for several years if they occur at all.
The river’s headwaters lie in Polk County in two streams that merge to form the river proper in eastern Hillsborough County.
The settlement agreement is scheduled for discussion at next week’s Swiftmud Governing Board meeting in Tampa.

The controversial Fort Meade hyperscale data center seems to have a number of hurdles to overcome before any development occurs, according to city documents dating to the initial Planning and Zoning Board hearing last May.
It is also clear that some of the criticisms may be a bit off base.
Here goes.
Many people understand this, but it is worth repeating is that the only thing before the City Commission at the moment is a development agreement, which lays out the city’s and the developer’s obligations. It is not a development approval.
In fact, the development agreement lays out a bunch of steps the developer will have to satisfy before the city will consider giving the project the go-ahead.
This may take some time.
One big issue that was not discussed at the recent hearings was the developer’s ability to gain access to the property for construction and employee traffic.
That requires crossing an active CSX rail line.
As Polk County learned when it was building Ernie Caldwell Boulevard, CSX does not allow at-grade crossings anymore and its required review of any plans for a highway overpass does not take place quickly and increases the cost of the project substantially.
Then there is the suitability of the land itself.
The staff report for the Planning and Zoning Board hearing stated, “the subject site and surrounding properties are not suitable for residential development due to the condition of the soils.”
One of the conditions for zoning approval is that the developer will have to submit a geotechnical study to document that the previously mined land is stable enough for building a 4.4 million-square-foot complex and related infrastructure.
That was contained in the approval for the planned-unit development designation for the property last year.
Although there was criticism that the city has no provision for industrial PUDs in its development code, the planners got around that by calling it a public facility.
Also, it is worth pointing out that without the PUD designation, the city would have been unable to impose conditions for approval on the project.
This was smart planning.
Nevertheless, there are still some issues to be worked out.
One is the 1.2 gigawatts of power the data center will require. If that number sounds familiar it’s about the same amount of nuclear power required to make the DeLorean work in “Back to the Future.”
The question is what it will take for Duke Energy’s nearby Hines Energy Complex to supply the load and at whose expense. The developer claims to be willing to pay for it, but critics are skeptical some of the costs won’t be passed on to other customers.
Then there is the question of what kinds of hazardous chemicals will be mixed with the cooling water or other aspects of the project and what happens if there is a spill and whether some of those chemicals will end up at the city’s sewer plant and whether the plant is equipped to handle it.
The amount of water the developer claims the data center will use does not seem to be excessive, but we’ll see.
Finally, there is a question of what kind of noise–audible or subsonic–the data center will emit and how that will affect nearby homeowners and the community in general. How much different will it be from the thrum of traffic noise on US 17/98 will probably be a talking point.
Stay tuned.

What was originally billed as a planned vote on a development agreement to advance the proposed data center in an industrial park on Fort Meade’s north side turned into a further delay on any decision Tuesday night.
What changed was a decision by city staff to make the vote the first reading of an ordinance, which requires no vote, instead of a resolution, which does.
That means the vote will not occur until April 14 at the soonest.
The development agreement lays out some actions Stonebridge, the site’s developer, and the city must take in preparation for the project to undergo further review for potential development approval.
There has been widespread opposition to the project, which forced city officials to move the meeting from City Hall to the Community Center to accommodate a roomful of critics.
Speaker after speaker listed concerns about the project’s effects on the water supply. the general environment and their quality of life.
They mentioned the potential for hazardous chemical spills, the noise the center and its backup generators will create and the lack of baseline data to track the project’s environmental effects.
Some speakers suggested that commissioners visit an existing data center to find out how it affects nearby property owners and residents before they vote.
Ancient Islands Sierra has not taken a formal position on the data center, but Chair Tom Palmer urged commissioners to consider the noise and pollution issues, whether sewage from the site will have to be pretreated for hazardous chemicals and the effects of light pollution on the nearby section of the Florida Wildlife Corridor.

The foolishness in Tallahassee over slashing property taxes and the financial realities of suburban sprawl combined to result in a 5-0 defeat of the proposed Emile Springs development along the Peace Creek’s floodplain east of Bartow Monday night.
The proposal involved a plan to build 2,245 homes on farmland about five miles east of downtown Bartow along the floodplain of Peace Creek.
Representatives of the landowner talked about property tax revenue, nature trails, towering buffers to block the view of the densely-packed homes on land outside the floodplain from adjacent rural homesteads and tentative pledges that utilities and school capacity were adequate.
A roomful of residents disagreed, arguing the leapfrog city-sized development was at odds with the city’s small town atmosphere.
In rebuttal, Lakeland developer George Lindsey argued that if the development complies with the city’s growth plan, commissioners have no choice but to approve it.
Commissioners quickly disposed of that argument by refusing to annex the eastern portion of the property, making any consideration of its land use and zoning moot.
Commissioner Trish Pfeiffer said growth must match the fiscal reality and trying to cram the equivalent of Fort Meade into an enclave at the edge of town was a poor match.
She cited moves in Tallahassee to slash local property taxes and impose other financial restraints on local government and the well-known fact that residential development doesn’t generate enough tax revenue to cover the cost of providing services as reason enough for her opposition.
Other commissioners agreed, adding they were uncomfortable approving a residential development that close to Bartow Municipal Airport.
Commissioners also denied the request to rezone the property that was already in the city from industrial to residential, derailing plans for the rest of the development.