Affordability
Affordability
Everyone I meet agrees that affordability is the number one issue facing our city and our nation.
I served as Governor during the Great Recession, and I was the last person to actually address the property tax issue in our state when I doubled our homestead exemption. I signed into law House Bill 5B, which allowed voters to consider Amendment 1. Amendment 1 doubled the homestead exemption, capped non-homesteaded property assessment increases, and created portability for the Save Our Homes program — allowing homeowners to transfer their existing homestead exemption when they move into a new home. Voters approved Amendment 1 in January 2008.
No Governor since has successfully addressed property tax affordability at the state level.
But cities can act. And St. Petersburg has not.
The Squeeze on St. Petersburg Residents
Over the past five years, the City of St. Petersburg has seen property tax revenue grow more than 50% — from roughly $148 million in 2021 to nearly $229 million in 2026. Over the same period, inflation grew about 22% and our city’s population grew by less than 5%.
Property tax revenue accounts for more than half of the city’s General Fund. Rather than pass that windfall on to residents, the current administration has used it to grow the size of city government — including an $18.2 million expansion of the General Fund operating budget in the most recent year alone.
While the current administration will point to small annual reductions in the millage rate, the cumulative cuts amount to roughly 0.30 mills — less than 5% — over four years, while ad valorem revenue grew more than 50% over the same period. That’s statistical relief, not real relief. And in the current budget, the administration broke even that pattern by holding the rate flat for the first time.
Meanwhile, in the same year, the City Council voted 4-2 to raise utility rates by 8 to 17%. Insurance costs continue to climb. Housing costs continue to surge. St. Petersburg residents are being squeezed from every direction, and city government has been part of the problem rather than part of the solution.
St. Petersburg Is the Outlier in Pinellas County
St. Petersburg now has the highest municipal property tax rate of any major city in Pinellas County:
- St. Petersburg: 6.4525 mills
- Tampa: 6.2076 mills
- Clearwater: 5.885 mills
- Largo: 5.52 mills
- Pinellas County: 4.5423 mills (the lowest county rate since 1990)
Pinellas County absorbed $1.5 billion in reduced property values countywide due to Hurricanes Debby, Helene, and Milton — the same storms that hit St. Petersburg — and still cut to its lowest millage rate in 35 years. Other Pinellas cities have maintained meaningfully lower rates while facing the same coastal exposure, the same insurance environment, and the same federal funding pressures.
The argument that St. Petersburg cannot afford to give residents a break is rebutted by what every comparable government in our region has actually done.
Real Property Tax Relief
As Mayor, I will reduce the City of St. Petersburg’s operating millage rate by 0.40 mills — from 6.4525 to 6.0525 — in my first budget. This will return approximately $14.8 million annually to residents and small businesses, while still preserving full funding for police, fire, affordable housing, and storm recovery. The math works because we’ll hold the line on the kind of government expansion that has driven recent budgets, returning less than this year’s increase alone to the people who paid for it.
This is not a silver bullet. A property tax cut alone will not solve the affordability crisis. But it is real money in real residents’ pockets, every single year, and it begins to close the gap between what St. Petersburg residents pay and what residents in every neighboring city pay.
A Career of Affordability Solutions
A recurring theme in my career is fighting cost-of-living battles through public-private partnerships and transparency tools rather than through price caps or direct government spending.
As Governor, I signed legislation expanding the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, requiring state approval before insurance rate hikes, and prohibiting insurers from dropping policyholders during hurricane season or delaying claim payments. As a result, statewide homeowner’s insurance premiums declined 10% from 2007 to 2010.
In 2008, Florida had an estimated 3.8 million residents without health insurance — the third-highest uninsured rate in the nation. To address it, I created the Cover Florida Health Care Access Program. Working directly with six insurance companies, the state allowed insurers to offer more affordable plans in exchange for lifting some government mandates. Each Cover Florida plan included a minimum set of benefits — preventative care, screenings, office visits, surgery, urgent care, and prescription drugs. Plans started at about $150 a month, compared to the roughly $600 monthly cost of standard private insurance at the time. The Florida Legislature passed Cover Florida unanimously. The program used no tax dollars.
I have also worked throughout my career to address the cost of prescription drugs. As Attorney General, I launched MyFloridaRX.com, where Floridians could compare drug prices between pharmacies. As Governor, I leveraged the strength of the office to negotiate lower prices and created the Florida Discount Drug Card Program — a public-private partnership with Envision Pharmaceutical Services that secured volume discounts on prescription drugs and passed savings on to consumers. No tax dollars were used. Within the first year, more than 3,000 retail pharmacies agreed to accept the Florida Discount Drug Card. In one of my final acts as Governor, I opened the program to all Floridians regardless of age or income — no waiting periods, no pre-existing condition restrictions, no membership fees. The program still operates today at FloridaRXCard.com.
Alongside the drug card, I launched a consumer health information portal at FloridaHealthFinder.gov, where consumers can find information on more than 1,600 diseases and conditions, lists of health care facilities, information about insurance, medications, and other consumer publications.
I have always been a consumer advocate, and I will continue to be one as Mayor. I have a proven track record of leveraging public office to deliver real benefits to working families. I have always been willing to find market-based solutions that serve the people I represent — and I will do it again for the people of St. Petersburg.
Fix the Water Billing Crisis
In recent years, St. Petersburg has experienced major problems with its water billing. After the 2024 hurricanes, thousands of residents received unexpected bills that were in many cases triple or more their usual cost. Some received bills in the thousands of dollars — including, in one widely reported case, a 92-year-old woman billed more than $10,000 for a vacant home.
The Water Cost Stabilization Fund was established decades ago to help mitigate water-cost increases for residents. The fund holds tens of millions of dollars and has remained largely untouched. Some of those resources could be deployed now to install Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) — digital water meters that report usage in real time, eliminate manual reading errors, and let residents track their daily water use online or through a mobile app.
By the city’s own admission, St. Petersburg loses approximately $4 million annually in water provided but not properly billed, due to faulty and aging meters.
While St. Petersburg has begun exploring AMI, we are well behind our neighbors. Pinellas County has been deploying digital meters since 2023. Pinellas Park already operates the “Eye on Water” application that lets residents track daily and hourly water use online or through their phone. St. Petersburg residents deserve the same.
The current administration has had years to act. There has been an unsolicited proposal that would deploy these meters as a service — with the vendor handling financing, installation, and maintenance — and yet the project has been delayed in the name of finding a “lower cost” alternative. While they study it, the city continues to lose money, and residents continue to face the risk of catastrophic billing surprises.
As Mayor, I will make full AMI deployment an immediate priority. I will work with the City Council to ensure the program is delivered without further delay.
A Different Approach
Affordability is the central challenge facing St. Petersburg residents today. It deserves a Mayor who treats it that way — who looks at every line of the budget through the lens of the family at the kitchen table, who refuses to let government grow on the backs of working people, and who has spent a career delivering practical, market-based affordability solutions.
That’s the record I’ll bring to City Hall.