Sheriff Staly Blasts Proposed Homestead Property Tax Amendment as ‘Politics’ That ‘Screw Around With the Cities and the County’

Did Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly just blast the proposed constitutional amendment to raise the homestead property tax exemption to $250,000 by 2028? Did he just give a path to local officials to oppose the amendment without risking their political lives? 

He just did on both counts. And he called on elected officials to do their part to “educate the public” about it. 

Since the Florida legislature two weeks ago approved the proposed constitutional amendment for the November ballot, local officials have been hesitant to be openly critical despite facing a historic funding cliff that could reduce traditional government services outside of public safety to skeletal silhouettes. 

They’ve called for “exercises” to evaluate what the cuts to their budgets might look like, as the County Commission is doing in an afternoon workshop today. They’ve started taking measures to cut the coming budget. They’ve panicked, as the cuts could all but eliminate services like mosquito control, water management, which are almost entirely dependent on property tax revenue, and severely curtail non-public safety services like code enforcement, parks and recreation, public works and culture. 

Palm Coast and Flagler County governments have adopted small but steady reductions in their tax rates over the last several years. Still, with rare exceptions–the East Flagler Mosquito Control District Board Chair Michael Martin is an exception–officials have not publicly attacked the homestead proposal as some have privately, especially in an election year, for fear of being perceived as opponents of tax cuts.

Not so Staly. 

In a long statement as surprising for its bluntness as for its prescription and prediction–he is not at all sure that the amendment will pass–Staly said all that state lawmakers did when they approved the proposal was “screw around with the cities and the county.” 

He called it “politics.” He called it thoughtless and lacking proper definitions. He all but called lawmakers hypocrites. And he said he’d never seen a proposal of such reach pass the legislature in a mere three-day special session. 

“I’m going to try my best to bite my tongue on my opinion on what occurred in Tallahassee,” Staly said. “I’ll probably have more to say about that later. But let’s remember that the voters haven’t spoken yet.” The sheriff was addressing the Palm Coast City Council this morning as part of his annual budget presentation and request–a request that included the addition of nine sheriff’s deputies and a budget increase of $2 million, to $13.5 million.  

“I know that there is a perception that voters will vote for it, and they might,” the sheriff said of the homestead proposal, describing how his own property taxes jumped from $3,000 to $8,000 when he moved into the house he had built on the west side of the county a few years ago. 

“So I understand the pain,” he continued. “But I also think the voters understand what the legislature did not do. It did not do anything that affected their budget, which is $114 billion. What they did was screw around with the cities and the county. But that’s what they did, in my opinion. It was politics. The leadership won’t even be there when this goes into effect. They’re not having to deal with it. So for whatever reason, this is where we are.  But I do believe that with proper education, the voters will make the right decision. And so I would encourage you to not jump off the cliff yet, because I’m not sure we’re there.”

Staly’s political capital is its own Swiss bank account: like his popularity, it has seemed inexhaustible for the past 10 years, though he does not often tap it, especially to oppose a measure that he knows a majority of voters likely favor. When he does, he’s giving cover to local officials to do what they otherwise would have been too fearful to do on their own. 

Governments as a body–the City Council, the County Commission–are barred from campaigning for or against political measures. But they are not barred from conducting education campaigns, as local governments and the School Board routinely do when advocating for increases in the sales tax (or preservations of existing sales tax supplements), or when advocating for measures like the Environmentally Sensitive Lands levy on property taxes.

Elected officials in their individual capacity are free to explicitly campaign for or against political measures (or politicians, as Palm Coast Mayor Mike Norris routinely does): nothing stops them from speaking against the proposed homestead amendment (or for it), or campaigning for or against it. Inevitably, they will be asked about their position on it on the campaign trail. 

Staly recalled the popularity of the recreational marijuana amendments that failed to reach the 60 percent threshold in 2024 (it got 55.9 percent) after a withering campaign against it by law enforcement and conservative organizations. (A 2022 measure was booted off the ballot by the state Supreme Court when it was judged to be misleading.) 

In the case of the homestead exemption proposal, voters themselves won’t be leading any charge against it. Staly put the responsibility on public officials and government associations. “I think it’s up to city and county and leadership organizations to educate the public, so they can make an informed decision, not a decision based on a paragraph that sounds really good,” he said. 

Staly said he’d analyzed the bill and noted that it exempts public safety from being defunded. “But there’s no definition on what law enforcement is,” he said. Emergency management, for example, is not included in the exemption, “which is kind of surprising, since we’re a state with hurricanes.” Some counties’ sheriff’s offices run animal control, as in Brevard. Some run emergency management. Some, as in Flagler, run the county jail. 

In an interview this afternoon, Staly said counties could theoretically bring certain services–like emergency management–under their fire department or the sheriff’s office, and immediately have those services defined as protected “core” services. He also cast doubt on the assumption that core services would not be affected. Local governments would inevitably cut back on funding even public safety services to diminish the impact of the overall revenue reduction on other services. 

“There are dramatic repercussions, and you see that right now,” Staly said. “Law enforcement, fire departments, public safety is protected. Well, what’s protection? Because we’re already seeing it. My understanding is the fire chief in Palm Coast asked for one new position, and it’s not in the budget.” 

In the interview, Staly said he had spoken “off the cuff” to the council, but he did not walk back any of the statements he made. Rather, he reasserted some and expanded on others. He said “when the time is right,” he might speak publicly again against the proposed amendment. 

He said he hopes the Florida Sheriffs Association will address the subject. He is its secretary and in July will become the association’s vice president. He is hoping to see the association stand up an education campaign on the amendment. As with elected bodies, the association may not explicitly endorse or oppose the proposal. 

“Individual sheriffs can say what they want, but I’d hope our association will take a stand to educate the public,” Staly said. “We’ll decide. I don’t know. I know we can’t be the only ones to carry the weight of the education.”