MANATEE COUNTY — On Wednesday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and CFO Blaise Ingoglia held a press conference at State College of Florida, where DeSantis signed two major pieces of legislation. Manatee County Commissioner Amanda Ballard and Bradenton Mayor Gene Brown flanked the governor as he signed the bills into law.
"Today in Bradenton, I signed Senate Bill 4-F, which makes it harder for local governments to raise property tax burdens on Florida homeowners," tweeted DeSantis. "This bill also allows a clear explanation on the Legislature’s property tax ballot initiative so that voters can make an informed decision in November, when Floridians will have the chance to vote for property tax relief and a pathway to elimination.
"I also signed HB 1329, the Local Government Financial Transparency and Accountability Act. Under this law, counties and cities will be required to put their financial information online in a format that Floridians can easily review. This legislation also requires local officials to conduct a budget-cutting exercise to reduce the tentative budget by 10 percent—without compromising essential public services—before final budget adoption. Both bills are important steps forward in our mission to deliver a more affordable state for homesteaded Florida residents."
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Kneeds2Know+
This newly signed SB 4-F and the HJR 1-F amendment are deceptive slip-throughs designed to trick voters with campaign slogans while actively penalizing regular people. While wealthy homeowners get a headline-grabbing break, the fine print secretly shifts the burden onto struggling renters, drives up rent prices, and starves our local emergency services of funding. It perfectly matches the ongoing efforts in Tallahassee to take financial independence away from our local communities and hoard all the power in political hands.
We see this exact same calculated pattern with the state's high 12.97% SNAP payment error rate. Lawmakers intentionally starve public agencies of the staff and resources they need to function, hide behind legislative immunity, and then label bureaucratic math mistakes as 'SNAP WASTE' just to avoid paying out food benefits to families trying to eat.
Whether it is rigging local tax structures or withholding food aid, it is the same strategy: taking money away from constituents, forcing vulnerable communities to take the blame, all to funnel total control straight to the state.
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