Friday, April 17 is Florida Taxpayer Independence Day 2026 — the symbolic date when the average Florida household has earned enough to satisfy all federal, state, and local tax obligations for the year.
Each year, more than one hundred million visitors come to Florida to enjoy its beaches, warm temperatures, and its numerous parks, thrills, and attractions. Latest FloridaCommerce data confirm that Florida set a new all-time annual record in calendar year 2024 with 143 million visitors an increase of 1.7 percent over the previous record set in 2023. Out-of-state visitors to Florida spent $134.9 billion in calendar year 2024. For every $1 spent by a visitor, 99 cents stayed in Florida’s economy, with 59 cents supporting worker salaries. Tourism supported 1.8 million jobs in 2024 and generated $79.9 billion in wages, including $44 billion in direct wages. Tourism-related activity produced $33.6 billion in federal, state, and local taxes. Tourism accounted for 7.8 percent of Florida’s Nominal Gross State Product (GSP), contributing $133.6 billion to the state’s economy in 2024. Without tourism, Florida households would pay $1,730 more annually in state and local taxes alone to sustain current levels of revenue.
For millions of Floridians, the defining economic question of the mid-2020s isn’t about growth or GDP — it’s about whether they can still afford to stay.
For the second year in a row, the Florida Legislature ended its 60-day session without completing its only constitutionally required task — passing a state budget.
Florida’s economy reached $1.85 trillion in Q3 2025, ranking first among all 50 states and the District of Columbia in economic growth. This fourth installment of Florida TaxWatch’s quarterly economic forecast series — produced in partnership with the Regional Economic Consulting Group — examines whether that momentum is sustainable through 2035.
Florida’s Law Enforcement Apprenticeship Program (LEAP) is helping address persistent officer shortages, particularly in rural and fiscally constrained communities where recruiting and retaining qualified personnel remains a challenge. Traditional pathways into law enforcement often require candidates to pay for training upfront while forgoing income, creating barriers that limit access to the profession.
Manufacturing is one of Florida’s leading industries and a key driver of job growth and economic strength, contributing more than $80 billion to Florida’s annual GDP.
The General Revenue (GR) Estimating Conference met on January 23 to adopt Florida’s latest GR forecast—the estimate that tells lawmakers how much is available for the next state budget.
For more than 60 years, Florida’s Space Coast—anchored by Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS)—has served as a premier gateway to space, driving tourism, high-tech jobs, and statewide economic output. After major federal program shifts in the 2010s led to significant regional job losses, Florida’s modern commercial-space resurgence—supported by Space Florida’s strategy to diversify the supply chain, modernize infrastructure, and attract private capital—has positioned the Space Coast to lead the next era of aerospace growth.
Florida property tax levies have been rising rapidly—increasing by nearly 40 percent in just the last three years and more than doubling in the last ten years—with property taxes now totaling $59.2 billion (FY2025–26). With the Legislature’s increased focus on affordability, especially housing affordability, property taxes are expected to be a top issue during the 2026 legislative session.
Executive Summary Florida’s economy—valued at $1.76 trillion in Q1 2025—entered the year with strong momentum, but this Q3 2025 Florida TaxWatch forecast projects a return
Setting water utility rates that incorporate the recovery of the costs associated with standard operating expenses and debt obligations is essential to ensuring the short-term and longer-term financial stability of the utility. Once these costs are covered, many publicly owned utilities make transfers to the General Fund (a practice known as “sweeping”) ostensibly to help pay for governmental services that do not generate revenue (e.g., roadway maintenance, public safety, etc.) and to help keep property taxes lower. Keeping property taxes low often means higher municipal utility rates to balance the general budget, a habitual practice that burdens utility customers with cross-subsidies and normalizes underinvestment in infrastructure.
The Florida TaxWatch Annual Report for 2019 is the 40th-anniversary edition and details the work of the organization over the past 40 years, including the history of the organization and its founding, and how that work ties into today’s efforts.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Today, Florida TaxWatch (FTW) released its 2019 edition of the How Florida Counties Compare report which compares the revenue and expenditure profiles of Florida’s 67 counties to give taxpayers an overview of how their local government stacks up with the rest of the state. With the release of the 2019 How Florida Counties Compare report, FTW has also relaunched an interactive online tool allowing users to compare two counties side-by-side.
Local taxing and spending is a major part of Florida government operations. More than half of all Florida government revenue (53.1 percent) is raised at the local level, one of the highest shares in the nation. Florida’s 66 county governments (plus Jacksonville’s consolidated government), more than 400 municipal governments, and approximately 1,000 independent special districts spend nearly $80 billion annually. This report compares the magnitude and makeup of Florida’s local governments’ fiscal operations. It does not attempt to compare or evaluate levels of service.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Today, Florida TaxWatch (FTW) released its review of the Broward County School District’s SMART Program in its report Monitoring and Oversight of General Obligation Bonds to Improve Broward County Schools: SMART Program Quarterly Report Review for the quarter ending September 30, 2019 . The report includes six recommendations which will be presented and discussed by Florida TaxWatch Vice President of Research Bob Nave at the Broward County Bond Oversight Committee’s Monday, December 16, 2019 meeting.
Distributed to the Bond Oversight Committee on December 16, 2019, this report examines the SMART program quarterly report for Q1 of FY2019-20.
Governor Ron DeSantis has released his $91.4 billion recommended spending plan for FY2020-21, providing a starting point for budget negotiations for when the next legislative session convenes on January 14, 2020. This could be considered his first recommended budget, since he released the last one less than a month after he took office, and agencies had submitted their budget requests three months before.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Today, Florida TaxWatch (FTW), joined by Florida State Senator Bill Montford (D-Tallahassee) and education leaders, announced the 2019-20 Principal Leadership Award (PLA) winners and recognized nine of Florida’s most effective leaders in high-risk K-12 public schools. This year’s winning principals, three each from elementary, middle and high schools, are from Broward, Collier, Duval, Lafayette, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, and Orange counties. Florida TaxWatch established the PLA program in 2014 to recognize and reward the work of principals and promote their unique practices throughout the state.
In today’s world of immediate access to information and ten-minute news cycles driven by social media, it is easy to forget that when it comes to government policies, we are all playing the long game. Florida’s low-tax, business-friendly climate and taxpayer-friendly policies have allowed our state to become one of the most desirable places in the world to call home. But it was not always this way. On the way to becoming the Sunshine State we all know and love, there were more and higher taxes, a more volatile constitutional amendment process and less-informed elected leaders.
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