Safety Harbor city officials say a new state law could strip up to $700,000 from next year’s budget, forcing tough decisions about which services residents may have to live without.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the legislation this week, and it took effect immediately. The law changes how cities and counties calculate the maximum property tax rate they’re allowed to adopt, removing growth in per capita personal income from that formula — a factor local governments previously used to help set the ceiling.
DeSantis has framed the law as a way to ease the burden on homeowners by slowing the growth of local property taxes. “If affordability is something we want to address, put the money back into the pocket of the property taxpayer, the homeowner,” he said. “That’s where you can do a lot of difference.”
But Safety Harbor Mayor Joe Ayoub said the change blindsided city leaders already bracing for budget cuts tied to broader property tax reform efforts. He said the city’s costs — including its contract with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, health and liability insurance, road paving, park maintenance, and equipment repair — are all rising, even as the new law caps how much revenue the city can bring in.
“If our revenue is not matching our expenses going up, we’re not left with many choices other than to cut back on the services we provide our residents,” Ayoub said.
Ayoub estimated the financial hit at $600,000 to $700,000 for the coming fiscal year, based on what the city would have lost had the law been in effect last year.
City Manager Josh Stefancic said staff now have to rework the 2027 budget using what’s called a rollback rate — essentially, the total amount the city collected this year, projected forward as the baseline for next year. Cities can still set rates up to 10% above that rollback rate, but doing so requires a two-thirds vote from the governing board.
Safety Harbor officials say the coming months will involve weighing spending priorities against the new revenue limits as they finalize the budget.
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