Florida Democrats came out swinging on Monday, filing amendments on the first day of a special session hoping to mitigate the damage they say will be caused by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ proposal to slash property taxes and radically overhaul how Floridians pay for essential local services.

“As you all know, we are here for the next three days to address the governor’s property tax plan. He is on his way out the door and he wants to bankrupt local communities in the process,” House Democratic leader Fentrice Driskell of Tampa said during a press conference at the Capitol Monday morning.

Meanwhile, at a news conference of his own 260 miles away in Land O’Lakes, DeSantis defended his proposal to wipe out up to 92% of the taxes homeowners pay on their primary homes.

“My question is there anything else that can be proposed that would actually deliver thousands of dollars in savings every single year to taxpayers?” DeSantis asked. “I haven’t seen it. So if you’re looking at helping people afford to be able to live and prosper, the property tax is the best game in town to be able to help with that.”

The Florida Legislature, which is controlled by a Republican supermajority, convened this week to decide whether to put the Save Our Homes from Excessive Property Taxes resolution on the November ballot.

The resolution calls for applying a homestead exemption of $150,000 the first year, and $250,000 the second year, and slashing in half how much cities and counties can raise the assessed value of non-homesteaded properties – including business, commercial, and residential rental properties.

The Legislature could adopt DeSantis’ proposal as is, amend it or scrap it altogether. Getting it on the ballot requires at least 60% of the members of both chambers to approve it.

Then 60% of voters must approve in November for it to become law Jan. 1.

While the plan has the support of state Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, has not talked about it publicly.

The bill’s first stop was the Senate Appropriations Committee, where Democrats planned to introduce several amendments to soften the blow of what they say will forever change local government funding. State Sen. Tina Polsky, D-Boca Raton, unsuccessfully introduced an amendment that would permit local governments to levy assessments, user fees, and other taxes for services listed as “core services.”

The House version of the resolution included funding for constitutional officers, which the Senate version left out until it was fixed Monday afternoon with an amendment from bill sponsor Sen. Bryan Avila, R-Hialeah Gardens. It also is written broadly enough to include any core services that other lawmakers believed were left out, Avila said.

State Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando, said he planned to file an amendment that would allow Orange County to use its tourist development tax dollars to prevent any reduction in public safety and education.

“Once people realize that their public schools are closing and their local police and fire departments are not getting resources and they would be less safe, they’ll agree they are better off spending that money on public safety and schools rather than corporate tourism ads,” Smith said.

The Senate Appropriations Committee voted down his amendment.

DeSantis said – erroneously – that the homestead exemption hasn’t significantly changed since it was raised from $5,000 to $25,000 in 1980, He left out that voters in 2008 approved a second $25,000 exemption for non-school taxes on the assessed value between $50,000 and $75,000 — meaning most homeowners get a $50,000 exemption, plus an additional adjustment based on the rise in the Consumer Price Index.

He also failed to mention the state has also approved homestead exemptions of up to $50,000 for low-income seniors 65 and older and up to total exemptions for qualified veterans and first responders.

“Anytime you do anything that benefits taxpayers, you’re going to have people come out of the woodwork saying ‘You’re not going to have any more police, you’re not going to have any more schools’ …. Obviously that’s not true,” DeSantis said.

Local officials and economic analysts have calculated counties would lose $10 billion and schools $5 billion if a $250,000 exemption is applied to primary homes. That revenue pays for hospitals, education, public safety, garbage pickup, libraries, parks and recreation, road maintenance and even election resources.

“In this economy Floridians are relying more on those local services for support. Therefore, this is not the time to cut off the funding to those local governments who need to be taking care of Floridians at a time they need it the most,” Driskell said.

Senate Democratic Leader Lori Berman, D-Boynton Beach, said DeSantis’ statement that no one else has come up with a plan to deliver thousands in savings to taxpayers was “100% false,” noting that Democrats introduced several measures during the regular session that were not taken up by the Republican-controlled leadership.

“I am angry that we did not address the affordability crisis and this legislation only exacerbates the crisis,” Berman said.

Democrats proposed “responsible tax cuts and breaks for first-time homebuyers, a suspension of the gas tax and a cap on insurance rates,” she said. “Instead, Republicans have brought us a political stunt that threatens to bankrupt local communities, close small businesses and jack up rent prices even further.”

Palm Beach County could lose over $500 million if the plan is fully implemented, she said.

DeSantis also failed to mention that the House introduced a resolution during the regular session that ended in March to eliminate property taxes on all homesteaded properties except for school taxes and also to require local governments to fund public safety services at their current level.

Berman said she was angry that after over a year of talking about property taxes, state lawmakers were being given only 72 hours to consider hastily drawn up legislation that would completely reshape the state’s economic landscape.

“This is not the way to legislate, and this is no excuse for the way this was done,” Berman said.

She noted that DeSantis even rushed to put up a website that people can use to calculate what their tax savings would be if his proposal is placed on the ballot and approved by voters, “but he didn’t care enough to have the state Revenue Estimating Conference prepare an analysis.”

Polsky said she was upset that the Legislature passed a law last year — approved by DeSantis — to prohibit spending state money on ballot amendments, but DeSantis is now asking for $5.5 million to have property appraisers mail out notices explaining his proposal.

And she said the title of the ballot amendment is misleading.

“It is one-sided and it talks about getting rid of ‘excessive’ taxes,” Polsky said. “That is a subjective statement and that is not right for that to go directly to the voters.”

An amendment filed by Berman to change the language to read “PROPERTY TAX AND LOCAL COMMUNITY SERVICE REDUCTIONS” failed.

As the Legislature assembled to begin the special session he called, DeSantis was at the Rosen Plaza hotel in Orlando alongside First Lady Casey DeSantis.

At an event focused on Casey DeSantis’ beleaguered Hope Florida program, a protester threw what appeared to be rainbow Skittles in the direction of the governor on the first day of LGBTQ Pride Month.

The issue of property taxes did not come up once.

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(Sentinel reporter Ryan Gillespie contributed to this report.)

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