OCALA, FL (352today.com) – Dr. Matthew Cretul, Marion County legislative manager, provided the Marion County Board of County Commissioners with an update in advance of the 2026 State of Florida legislative session at the commission’s meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026.
The state session begins Jan. 13 in Tallahassee. The deadline to file bills is Jan. 9; ninety-eight were filed on Jan. 5, said Cretul. The session is expected to end on March 13, 2026.
“As we saw last year, there was a budget conversation that lasted longer than the required time,” said Cretul. “Property taxes and growth management, we would expect to be the big items that Tallahassee is looking at, you’ve seen them in the news, especially property taxes, and then growth management is something that the legislature is always taking very long hard looks at.”
Movers and shakers and policy makers
Marion County senior staffers and directors are receiving bill trackers. Commissioners will be receiving weekly trackers as the session begins, from both Cretul and the office of legislative management, related to any bills or updates.
All of Marion County’s appropriation requests and attestation forms have been filed well in advance of the Jan. 19 deadline, said Cretul.
Senator Stan McClain, to whom Cretul referred as Marion County’s Dean of the Delegation at the state level, serves as the Chair of Community Affairs. Judson Sapp represents House District 20; Richard Gentry, House District 27; Rep. Ryan Chamberlin, House District 24; Rep. J.J. Grow, House District no. 23; and Rep. Yvonne Hayes-Hinson, House District 21.
“We’ve heard a lot about property taxes,” said Cretul. “The State House Speaker has released the formal tax house package. it’s a package of eight bills, seven of those are joint resolutions, which means they would need a senate companion, and they would go to a vote to the residents of the State of Florida to determine if this constitutional amendment is something that they want.”
Some of the response on the critique side is that these are a lot of bills that the state’s citizens are asked to choose from, with the State House speaker’s response being that citizens should have a choice in their future as it relates to property taxes, said Cretul.
The final bill, the Ad Valorem Taxation, is a general bill, so it has a chance of going through the traditional process, said Cretul.
Florida House of Representatives 8-bill tax plan
- HB 0201 – Elimination of non-school property tax for homesteads
- HB 0203 – Phased out elimination of non-school property tax for homesteads
- HB 0205 – Elimination of non-school property tax for homesteads for persons age 65 or older
- HB 0207 – Assessed home value homestead exemption of non-school property tax
- HB 0209 – Property insurance relief homestead exemption non-school property tax
- HB 0211 – Accrued Save-Our-Home property tax benefit for non-school property tax
- HB 0213 – Modification of limitations on property assessment increases
- HB 0215 – Ad Valorem taxation (the only general bill of the group)
However, these weren’t the only bills submitted that concern property taxes, said Cretul. There have been a lot of attempts to determine the future of property taxes around the State of Florida.
HB 0787, County and School District Ad Valorem Taxing; 0789, Ad Valorem Tax Levies; and 0791, Tax/Sales Taxes, are Rep. Chamberlin’s that he has put forward as his tax relief plan. Assessed values of non-homestead properties is Rep. Grow’s, and then Ad Valorem tax revenue in fiscally constrained counties is Sen. McClain’s bill, said Cretul.
Monitoring bills that are meaningful to Marion
Of the couple of hundred bills that have been filed that Marion County has been looking at, staff put together a Top 10, although there are several honorable mentions, said Cretul.
- HB 0027, Term Limits–12 years is what has been proposed for board of county commissioners and district boards by Rep. Holcombe
- SB 0048, Housing, Sen. Gaetz
- SB 0218, Land Use Regulation, Sen. Gaetz
- SB 0380, Legal Notices by Sen. Trumbull
- SB 0840, Land Use Regulations for Local Governments Affected by Natural Disasters by Sen. DiCeglie
- HB 0927, Local Land Planning and Development by Rep. Sapp
- SB 0208, Land Use and Development Regulations by Sen. McClain
- SB 0354, Blue Ribbon Projects by Sen. McClain
- SB 0458, Growth Management by Sen. McClain
- SB 0686, Agricultural Enclaves, Sen. McClain
- SB 0718, Water Management by Sen. McClain
- SB 0948, Local Government Land Development Orders by Sen, McClain
“Legal Notices is one that I know that the board has been dealing with that allows for other constitutional officers to utilize their websites as the formal website for posting legal notices,” said Cretul. “So, I keep that on the tracker because I know that’s a current conversation our board is having with our constitutional officers. Local planning and development is a bill that does streamline a lot of processes, it does involve our growth management and county attorney’s office and our building safety departments in some cases as well.”
SB 0354, Blue Ribbon Projects, looks to streamline a lot of the very large projects that may come in and provide an economic advantage to an area, said Cretul. The legislature is looking at how the water management districts are set up, or what they are able and/or authorized to do.
Springing into action
Commissioner Michelle Stone asked where the state legislature stood about allowing swimming in Silver Springs. At the moment, the project is at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, with the county having requested $2.5 million, with St. John’s River Water Management District playing an instrumental role in helping the county through the process, coordinating and getting their permitting side finished, said Cretul. There is hope that there will be some movement on it in the near future.
Commission Chair Carl Zalak, III, remains concerned, however, asking Marion County staff for a full update and report, stating that he was getting “awfully fatigued” with the county’s and their lobbyist’s inability to find a pathway to get it done.
“The fact that we aren’t having meetings with whoever we need to, and with the governor’s office, if the governor tells the DEP to go do it, I have a feeling it will get done,” said Zalak, III. “Our team has not gotten us to that decision point. If it doesn’t get done, we’re going to have to make some other decisions this year. This has been our number one thing. We got it funded. It still hasn’t gotten done. If they don’t get it done, we have to figure out a different pathway to get it done. I don’t know what that looks like commissioners, but as Matt (Cretul) said, keep pressing on, and let them know, if they get all these other things done, we’ll get those things funded ourselves. We can go ask our representatives, what we need their help on, and our team’s help on, is making sure that swimming in the springs gets done.”
An agreement had been signed, with the State of Florida having given its word, said Stone. The agreement with the State of Florida stated that swimming would return to the Springs.
However, it appears that it’s in a stall mode, without someone in the executive branch telling the Department of Environmental Protection to do it, said Zalak, III.
Commissioner Kathy Bryant suggested sending a letter to the governor’s office outlining the agreement and what was promised for the things that were agreed upon, and either requesting a meeting or having the governor look into the matter and provide his feedback.