Florida voters to decide on property tax relief in November

FORT MYERS, Fla. (WINK)—Florida voters will decide in November whether to eliminate property taxes.

Last week, lawmakers put property tax relief on the ballot. In November, voters will decide whether to raise the homestead exemption to $250,000.

The City of Fort Myers hosted a workshop to discuss what that could mean for the city if property taxes go away. City leaders worry about what that could do to the budget for city infrastructure, projects and local agencies.

WINK News spoke with Mayor Kevin Anderson last week about his thoughts on the proposal and what this will potentially mean for Fort Myers.

"We're going to become dependent either on Tallahassee or the federal government, or a combination of both," Anderson said.

"Our cost for public safety alone is over $100 million, so you could see where that's going to have... we're going to have to make some serious decisions. Where do we cut, you know, can we cut garbage? You know, that's a hard thing," Anderson said.

The workshop marks another step in the ongoing debate among local and state leaders about the controversial proposal.