The May meeting featured two main presentations.
First, Kate Wesner, Florida Director of the American Flood Coalition, gave an overview of their work helping communities across Florida and the Southeast become more resilient to flooding – from sea level rise and storm surge to inland flooding.
A few key takeaways: Membership is completely free. Cities can join simply by passing a resolution or having the town manager sign a letter. The coalition offers several useful tools, including the Flood Funding Finder, which helps communities – especially smaller ones – identify and apply for grants, and the Adaptation for All booklet with practical mitigation solutions. The Florida Flood Hub at USF also provides free data models for community planning.
On the funding side, Florida’s Resilient Florida program provides $20 million annually for planning grants and $100 million for implementation grants. The coalition is also pushing for federal reforms, including state management of federal disaster funds and faster FEMA action.
Second, Councilmember Jennifer Webb provided a legislative update focused on the ongoing special session on property taxes, which must wrap up by June 30.
A 25–50% additional homestead exemption is being considered – but because it would require a constitutional amendment, it would be extremely difficult to reverse once enacted. There are also concerns about the state’s ability to make up the resulting budget shortfall, and no implementation plan has been presented.
The full state budget is expected by June, following a conference in Tallahassee on May 12th. City administrators and lobbyists were urged to re-engage with their priorities now, as the budget may not pick up where it left off in March.
On communications: it was strongly recommended that member cities educate residents now, before the language is finalized – through public forums and clear messaging about where tax dollars go. Once the language is set, public commentary should stop to avoid attention from the attorney general’s office.
Finally, watch for an updated Property Appraiser tool that will let residents see the direct impact of proposed changes on their tax bills. That link will be distributed to all SLC members once available.