Every year, elected officials in cities, towns and villages throughout Florida proclaim they’re holding the line on taxes. Sometimes they even brag that they’re cutting the tax rate.
People often wonder why their tax bills keep going up.
How it works
The ultra-simplified version of property taxes is they’re determined by the taxable value of a piece of property multiplied by the tax rate.
The taxable value is based on the market value of the property, determined by the county property appraiser’s office. The taxable value is lowered for owner-occupied homes, by homestead exemptions and limits on increases by the Save Our Homes program.
The basic system works like this: A home or business with a taxable value of $300,000 that is charged a tax rate of $5 for every $1,000 of value would pay $1,500. That represents the taxable value multiplied by the tax rate.
Many governments, including water management districts, health or hospital districts and children’s services councils charge tax rates.
Equation variables
The system allows local government leaders to proclaim — as many do every year — that they’ve held the line on taxes if they keep the tax rate the same. But even if the tax rate stays the same, if property values are increasing the result of multiplying the taxable value of the property times a flat tax rate is a higher tax bill.
Higher property values don’t automatically mean higher taxes. That’s entirely up to local governments. They set the tax rate, that is the amount of taxes for every $1,000 of property value.
Governments can adjust the tax rate to what’s called the rollback level, which is what it took in during the previous year. So the lower rate times the higher property value would bring in the same amount of money. But that means they wouldn’t have money to keep up with inflation and population growth.
The state Truth In Millage Act sets requirements for governments that levy taxes to spell out tax rates and budget hearing notices — in advertisements and TRIM notices mailed to property owners. Governments that plan to take in more money from taxes must advertise a “proposed tax increase.”
Florida law requires local governments to publish notices of tax increase when their proposed tax rates would take in more revenue than in the previous year. They are required to use large, attention-grabbing type at the top, as in this notice that appeared in the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Monday, Sept. 26, 2025. (Staff/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Rate cut, tax increase
Broward County provides an illustration. The County Commission cut the tax rate in September for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, a development that generated news headlines. A county statement said property owners “will see some tax relief.”
It set a tax rate of $5.6658 for every $1,000 of taxable value, down from the previous year’s $5.6690.
Here’s the math:
— The owner of a home with a taxable value of $300,000 would have paid $1,700.70 in county government taxes last year.
— Save Our homes would have allowed the taxable value of that property to increase to $308,700. (Under Save Our Homes, homesteaded values can increase 3% a year or the rate of inflation, whichever is less. The cap this year was 2.9%.)
— Multiplying the higher home value by the slightly lower rate translates into a county tax bill of $1,749.03.
— Taxes on that piece of property would go up by $48.33 even though the rate was cut.
If the tax rate stayed the same, county budget documents show it would have generated an estimated $1.8 billion in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.
The millage reduction cuts that amount by about $1 million.
When they debated the rate, county commissioners acknowledged that taxpayers will not notice a cut, but the increases they see will be slightly lower than they would have been without the cut. Some predicted the commission would be criticized for even calling it a cut.
Widespread confusion
The system is opaque to many people. At a hearing of the House Select Committee on Property Taxes, one of its members, state Rep. Ryan Chamberlin, R-Belleview, said he’s only recently started to understand.
“We have found out on this committee just in the last couple days — I found out throughout the summer — millage rates can go down and property taxes can go way up in the same time frame. I also found out that there’s something called a rollback that we can do,” Chamberlin said.
Sun Sentinel reporter Rafael Olmeda contributed to this report.
Political writer Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.
