‘Taxpayers are sick of it:’ Gov. DeSantis rails Hillsborough school board over proposed tax measure

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke out against the Hillsborough County School Board’s lawsuit over a proposed property tax increase to help fund teacher salaries.

“You do not need to raise anybody’s taxes,” the governor exclaimed in his most animated response to a question at a news conference in St. Petersburg on Wednesday. “Why are you trying to raise property taxes in the midst of some of the worst inflation we’ve seen in the modern history of this country?”

During a special meeting Tuesday , the school board voted to file a lawsuit against the Hillsborough County Commission over the postponed property tax increase that was set for the upcoming November ballot.

The millage referendum, if approved, would have generated $177 million for teacher pay, school leaders estimated.

The commission instead voted 4-3 to postpone the referendum until the 2026 ballot. The school board said the money is critical to retaining and hiring teachers as the district faces a shortage of 500 teachers.

“It’s so shortsighted… and I think it’s just showing the overstep of the board of the county commission and I hope Governor DeSantis realizes that this is an overstep,” school board member Nadia Combs said.

Instead, DeSantis criticized the school board, saying there are plenty of funds in the state budget to increase teacher pay.

“This year’s budget, we have $1.25 billion dollars… it can only be used to increase teachers salaries,” DeSantis said. “That’s the only thing it can be used for, but then we also had a massive increase in the base student allocation. So that money goes to the districts. Hillsborough can take a lot of that money and raise teachers’ salaries.”

DeSantis finished his response by suggesting that some on the school board may be voted out come November.

“I think taxpayers are sick of it,” DeSantis said. “Why don’t you manage things better rather than trying to come and jack up people’s taxes?”

Patricia Rendon, District 4 school board member, said she has been asking this same question.

“Why aren’t our teachers the very first thing we negotiate and then we get budgets to all our other departments? We don’t do it that way. We have to change the way we prioritize each of our departments and our teachers and our staff first,” Rendon said.

In April, Rendon voted against the millage being added to the ballot, and she voted against suing the county. She said she wants to see more done for teachers and reminds people the millage doesn’t increase salary but provides a bonus opportunity.

The district said if voters approve the millage, teachers would receive a yearly salary supplement of $6,000, while support staff would receive $3,000 and administrators would receive $6,000.

Meanwhile, property owners would pay $1 for every $1,000 in taxable value.

The deadline to submit the ballot items for the general election is August 20th.

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