DeSantis Calls House’s Property Tax Cut Study as ‘Dog and Pony Show’

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke out during a press availability in Miami on Tuesday to take more verbal shots at Florida House Republicans — this time regarding the select committee studying a potential cut in property taxes formed by House Speaker Daniel Perez, which convened for the first time on Friday.

The Florida Legislature extended its regular legislative session that day because the House and Senate have yet to agree on a balanced budget, although the leaders said that they had “reached a framework” for a plan that includes $2.8 billion in tax relief.




DeSantis and Perez have been sniping at each other since before the regular legislative session began in March, a startling development between fellow Republicans that has rocked the political establishment in Tallahassee. Their feud now revolves around a policy dispute about whether Floridians should get a property tax cut or a sales tax reduction.

The 37-member Select Committee on Property Taxes will meet over the next seven months with the goal of crafting a constitutional amendment to place on the November 2026 ballot.

The governor was not impressed.

“What the House Leadership did — the last day of the legislative session, on Friday — convened a committee of 37 people, including some of the most left-wing Democrats in the state of Florida,” he said Tuesday. “You shouldn’t be trying to resurrect the Democratic Party when you have a three-to-one majority. You should be winning and continuing our wins.”




Among those named to the committee were some of the most progressive Democratic members of the Florida House, including Orlando’s Anna Eskamani, as well as Dianne Hart and Michele Rayner from the Tampa Bay area.

“If you have a legislative body who’s creating a 37-member committee, they’re not doing that because they want to give you property tax relief,” DeSantis said.

“They’re doing that to try to kill property tax relief, so this is a total dog-and-pony show. This is not anything that is credible. The fact that you would wait until the last day of the legislative session — that just shows your cards. It shows what you’re trying to. That’s not what the voters sent any of these guys there to do. They want relief from property taxes, and we have an opportunity to do that.”

DeSantis ridiculed both chambers for failing to come up with a budget by last week, in time for the 72-hour “cooling off” period required in state law before voting on it by the end of the regular session, which was supposed to end last Friday but now has been extended until June 6.

“It’s honestly not that hard to do any of this stuff,” DeSantis said dismissively. “You know what you do? You just look back at what’s been done over the last six years. … You just look at that, and you basically copy and paste.”

Soak the snowbirds

Perez offered a $5 billion tax cut earlier this year — a plan that DeSantis has dismissed as giving a tax break for Canadians and other visitors, and not a “Florida-first” plan.

The governor at one point entertained an idea to give property owners a tax break of approximately $1,000 this year, while also maintaining his original desire to completely eliminate property taxes through a constitutional amendment to be decided by the voters in the fall of 2026.

But Perez said last week, “Unfortunately, as the weeks have gone by, the governor has yet to come forward with any specific answers to those questions or with any specific plan or with actual bill language.”

Condo crisis

DeSantis also weighed in on legislation that will soon come to his desk to address rising fees for condominium unit owners.

The bill (HB 913) passed unanimously in both the House and Senate and will allow condominium associations to secure credit lines and invest funds to pay for building repairs instead of immediately raising large amounts of cash from owners.

The governor said he likes the final product, but was still miffed that the Legislature didn’t act when he asked them to deal with the situation in a special session in January.

A Miami reporter asked DeSantis what he made of the decision two weeks ago by then-Democratic Senate Leader Jason Pizzo to leave the party and become a political independent.




The governor took the opportunity to slam the fact that two Democrats (Reps. Susan Valdés and Hillary Cassel) have jettisoned that party and flipped to the GOP in the past six months.

“People realize they can’t get elected unless they have an ‘R’ by their name, so you have people who are smuggling their leftism into the Republican Party,” he said.

“So, they have an ‘R’ by their name, but they’re not governing as Rs, and the fact that you would have an almost 3:1 House majority, and they tried to deep six our immigration enforcement in January, and wanted to do a sanctuary bill with a 3:1 majority, and they brought in Democrats to change party labels but they still vote very liberal, so they haven’t had an epiphany. It’s just more of a pathway to power.”

There are 86 Republicans in the Florida House and 33 Democrats.

DeSantis went on to suggest that some House Republicans are actually “motivated’ by “leftism,” adding, “You can put whatever lipstick you want on that, but leftism is a pig. Putting lipstick on it, it’s still a pig, guys.”

The Phoenix reached out to Speaker Perez’s office for a response, but did not immediately hear back.

–Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix