Florida's school districts may be getting their own tax relief.

School districts may be exempt from the proposal to double the homestead exemption, Scott Kittel, education policy coordinator in the governor’s budget office, told a House education committee Tuesday.

Districts stand to lose hundreds of millions under the proposal. Hillsborough County estimated the move would cost it more than $50-million. Palm Beach County school officials put the cost at $47-million.

"If they do that, it would save the state a lot of heartbreak," Vernon Pickup-Crawford, lobbyist for the Palm Beach County School District, said when told of the change. "Because the money would have to be made up somehow. If this is the case, that's one less concern the school districts have."

School officials have been discussing the implications with Gov. Charlie Crist's staff, arguing that they have kept spending at a minimum. They worry that by making the homestead exemption optional at a local level, some school districts could be sending less money to the state only to get the same amount in return as districts that send more. And they say less money means less teacher pay, services and no room to meet class size reduction goals.

-- Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler / Alex Leary