Miffed That He Didn’t Get His Way, DeSantis Won’t Campaign for Tax Amendment

Gov. Ron DeSantis has spent more than a year boosting  a proposal to eliminate or substantially reduce property taxes for Floridians, but because the Legislature’s version doesn’t reach as far as his own plan, he now says he doesn’t intend to campaign for the proposal that will go before the voters in November.

“I don’t think so,” the governor said in response to inquiry by a Phoenix reporter during a news conference whether he’ll campaign for the measure, which needs approval by 60% of voters for passage.

“The reason is, what the Legislature did wasn’t my proposal. We had a proposal and I felt an obligation if that were on the ballot, to lead the effort we would have done a political committee. We would have made sure that we were able to do that and explain and just educate people on it. And I wouldn’t have liked doing it, but I would have felt an obligation.”

But the governor says he now feels no obligation to campaign for the measure, because the Legislature’s plan isn’t as far reaching as his was. His plan — presented to the Legislature five days before it was scheduled to convene in Tallahassee for the third special session this year – included property taxes that go to schools, a provision that lawmakers weren’t willing to entertain, as it was never part of proposals that moved through the House during the regular legislative session. (The Senate never developed its own proposal.)

The amendment the Legislature did approve includes most of the key elements of the governor’s plan: It will increase the homestead exemption for non-school ad valorem taxes to existing Florida residents to $250,000 by 2028. It lowers the future assessed growth on non-homesteaded property taxes from the existing 10% to 5%. It restricts how local governments may spend property-tax revenues, and it creates a residency waiting period of five years for new Florida residents before they receive the full exemption.

But it also removes a specific provision to eventually raise the homestead exemption to $500,000; eliminates a proposed state trust fund to help local governments cover revenue shortfalls; and removes a provision that would have allowed the governor’s office to spend $5.5 million on mailers to promote the property tax plan to voters.

The governor said he still believes the proposal that the Legislature approved is “good for taxpayers” and that he will vote for it.

“But ours was part of a larger vision, and I think it would have really been something that would have been historic,” he said. “This could lead to that, but you’re going to have to do other things in the future, and I kind of felt like this was the one shot we had to really put us on this pathway. We have all this money here, so we could have been able to help smooth this transition. I would have been totally willing to do that.”

The governor later said he thought the proposal will pass with 60% approval this fall, “but I don’t know that.”

“I know that ours would have passed because we did a lot of research on exactly how to structure it and how to do that,” he said.

Opposition

While no formal political campaign to support Amendment 3 has yet been announced, there are now two organizations working to oppose the measure.

A “No on 3” group calling itself  “Stop Unfair Tax Shifts” that is being chaired by former Leon County Commissioner Bryan Desloge was formally announced last week.

Now there is 3 Degrees Florida. The group says on its website that it is not asking Florida residents to vote against property tax relief, but to consider what happens if the tax cut passes.

“We’ll all pay for the loss of essential service capacity and quality one way or another,” it says. “A lower property tax bill isn’t a bargain if you end up paying more everywhere else.”

The group is chaired by Derek Strickland, who describes himself on the website as “a third-generation Floridian who was minding his own business until the call to civic action became too strong to ignore.”

The governor said he didn’t know the details of either campaign, but that it would be “totally inappropriate” if local governments spent taxpayer money to oppose the measure.

Florida law bans such expenditures. State law says a “local government or a person acting on behalf of local government may not expend or authorize the expenditure of, and a person or group may not accept, public funds for a political advertisement or any other communication sent to electors concerning an issue, referendum, or amendment, including any state question, that is subject to a vote of the electors.”

In 2024 DeSantis launched a political action committee called the Florida Freedom Fund designed in part to campaign against proposed constitutional amendments that would have legalized recreational cannabis for adult use and enshrine abortion rights into the Florida Constitution.

However, he also diverted at least $35 million of taxpayer funds to fund campaigns against those amendments as well, according to reporting from the Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald.

–Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix