Saying Floridians need property tax relief now, former Florida House Speaker and 2026 Republican gubernatorial candidate Paul Renner is calling for the Legislature to reduce the ad valorem taxes levied by local governments immediately by rolling them back to the previous year’s levels, plus a reduction based on how much the county’s spending had increased since 2020.
The Legislature should cap future taxes to ensure local government cannot grow faster than Floridians’ incomes, he added, and require a 2/3 supermajority vote of local government for any new or increased tax or fee subject to a subsequent referendum, for voters to approve or reject.
“We don’t have to wait two years for an amendment to go on the ballot in November 2026,” he said while addressing reporters in Tampa on Thursday. “We can give people relief right this minute and that’s what I’m calling for today in the form of a rollback.”
Renner said his proposal isn’t complicated and that it’s simply reproducing what happened during a 2007 special legislative session. That’s when then Gov. Charlie Crist and House Speaker Marco Rubio agreed to reduce ad valorem taxes collected by local governments in FY 2007-08 to a specified percentage of the rolled back rate for 2006‐07.
Renner’s comments came while a select House committee in Tallahassee debated several proposed constitutional amendments to substantially reduce or outright eliminate property taxes for homestead properties that would potentially go on the November 2026 ballot. The idea has been aggressively pursued by Gov. Ron DeSantis as he heads into his final year leading Florida.
Renner said that the percentage of what would be returned to taxpayers in his proposal would depend on how much that local government has spent.
“If your county has been fiscally conservative and they’ve given some of that money back to taxpayers — as they should — then they have a smaller rollback,” he said. “If your county is one that has taken every single penny — and this has happened in many counties — you have a larger rollback. That’s up to the Legislature to look at the numbers and make a decision on what that rollback amount would look like.”
Gov. DeSantis has dismissed the multiple proposed measures that members of the Florida House debated Thursday, saying only a single constitutional amendment should go on the ballot. Renner said he mostly agreed with that idea.
“I think you need one plan that’s straightforward,” he said. “That people can look at and say, ‘Does this make my life better?’”
The 58-year-old Renner, a military veteran and former state prosecutor, concluded a nine-year stint in the House in 2024, spending the last two years as speaker. He entered the GOP contest for governor in early September, joining southwest U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds in the contest to succeed a term-limited DeSantis next year.
Although there have been rumors of other candidates entering the race, Donalds and Renner remain the top contenders going into next August’s GOP primary. “I think I am the viable alternative,” he said when asked if he considered himself the top challenger to Donalds, who has the imprimatur of Donald Trump as well as $30 million raised in his campaign coffers.
“We’re the undisputed leader as well on having a plan,” Renner added, referring to the affordability plan he released last week that includes specific proposals to reduce insurance costs, ensure that tuition isn’t increased in Florida universities, and boost healthcare (he is calling on Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act and return control to the states as well as promoting “high-quality healthcare options that put patients in control”). He also wants to end H-IB visa hires for state employees.
Renner spoke about what he deemed the legislative successes that he worked on with DeSantis and the Legislature during his term as speaker, which included his sponsorship of an expansive and controversial voucher law to provide public money for children to attend parochial, secular, and other private schools across the state, regardless of family income. That program has now expanded to 500,000 students statewide.
A recently released audit for the 2024-2025 school year found a “myriad of accountability challenges” with the school choice program, with millions of dollars in overspending as well as lack of oversight and delays in scholarship payments.
“I think you don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater,” Renner responded. “This is a great program, but if out of that half-a-million there are 50 or 500 that are not complying in the right way, kick them off the program. That’s enforcement. Don’t use any problems along the way to eliminate the program or redo the program.”
Despite the fact that he considers himself the main challenger to Donalds in the Republican primary, Renner says his campaign is centered on the needs of the electorate.
“I’m not running a campaign against him, I’m running a campaign for the people of Florida,” he said. “I’m putting Florida first. I have leadership that the other candidates frankly don’t have. I’ve delivered results. And again, I’m focused on people’s needs. It’s a ‘we’ campaign, it’s not a ‘me’ campaign.”
–Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix
Laurel says
I no longer trust Republicans. I don’t believe anything they say anymore. I hate the way they are screwing up this state. They have way too much power, and not enough respect for the average residents. They wear crosses, but worship gold filigree. They advertise up north to come here and take us back to the dark ages, and concrete the land, cutting down the trees, building over wildlife habitat.
No thanks. Not until they are ready to listen to us over the lobbiests. Not until they work at bringing us together, instead of calling half of us “vermin.”
Taxpayer says
Agreed.
Pogo says
@Rollback?
… just wait — til Renner, and his ilk, perfect time travel: welcome to the 1850s. On our way to prehistory.
Yabba Dabba Doo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL640BZPSsg
Yeah, laugh it up, then look at the Christian fundamentalist canon of natural history — you know, the total replacement of science and history with the snake handler’s guide to the universe: from kindergarten to research universities, with your taxes paying for the destruction. Ha ha ha — right?
Deborah Coffey says
Paul Renner and his MAGA Party have caused the affordability crisis by gifting their big donors every step of the way. Local governments aren’t growing. The costs imposed by Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature from their godawful policies are the problem. They’ve destroyed education, killed the condo market, locked up every working immigrant they can find, allowed FP&L and other huge utilities huge increases, builders to run wild, and insurance companies to rule the day unchecked. Local governments run by that same political party are spending in reckless ways, as well…Flagler County buying land on the Intracoastal Waterway to give to Palm Coast for a bigger park, while almost every car will need new shock absorbers because even the neighborhood roads need paving so badly!
Taxes aren’t the problem. How conservatives are spending our money IS the problem.
Joe D says
“Property tax ROLLBACK”…..sounds like just another “ What popular/ realistically unfulfillable CAMPAIGN PROMISE can I toss out there to get the gullible MAGA voters to vote for me?” Approach…
Tourism can be a BIG HELP with public funding in Florida ( unless you live in Flagler County, and you’ve let the $900 million tourist dollars slip through your hands, by not adequately funding a REALISTIC BEACH REPLENISHMENT PLAN). No Beach=No Tourist dollars.
But, as I’ve said in other comments…”STUFF WEARS OUT!” Roads, bridges, sewers, water treatment and storm water systems all have a projected “useful life.” You can TRY to use the Bandaid approach…which it appears we’ve ALREADY used…and it’s time to PLAN for future INFRASTRUCTURE repair/ replacement. So since we have been BLESSED ( I THINK) with no State income taxes, there are only a few alternatives. Increase property taxes, increase specific fees, use the “special assessment” route of an add on TAX DISTRICT designation fee ( currently in the plans for Flagler County) …or simply LET THINGS FALL APART!
MAINTAINING the State, County, local jurisdiction isn’t FREE! Things are also getting more expensive to replace ( not to mention the current cost of add on tariff costs for supplies and equipment). Although I WOULD SUGGEST tabling any new “vanity projects,” like a new multi million dollar Western Sports Complex, and any new “Luxury” public building construction projects (except where ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY), until the current cost deficits level off.
So let’s be reasonable voters…don’t just
listen to the “I’ll bring costs down, while PROMISING to give you the WORLD,” vote grabbing campaign slogans… it has to get paid for SOMEHOW…and Developer new impact fees are legislatively LIMITED in amounts, frequently of maximum rise, and only for targeted use…so NEW DEVELOPMENT can’t LEGALLY be charged with paying for ALL of the cost increases.
You REALLY have to be an EDUCATED and INFORMED voter….you can’t just take the campaign media HYPE at face value! Well, I guess YOU CAN believe the Campaign MEDIA HYPE at face value…that’s WHY we are in this current FINANCIAL MESS! You
can’t blame EVERYTHING on so called FAILED “Bidenomics!” But it must FEEL GOOD to hear yourself SAY IT!
RWBoggess says
I guess I missed it….if they do away with Property taxes (except for schools – with a lot of that money going to private schools or parents’ pockets that send their kids to public schools — who knows, the state doesn’t) who pays for law enforcement? Who pays for local roads? Who pays for fire protection/services? Who pays to mow public property? Who pays (_______) Fill in the blank!
This is probably going to be something quickly put together in order to garner votes for November 2026 in favor of the GOP with the same hideous and financial disaster that the school voucher system was.
Pogo says
@All my life
… I’ve seen 2 types of people: mostly selfish, mostly not. And during the same time, I’ve never known of a Republican Party politician who didn’t frame all taxes as waste and theft — what’s theirs is theirs, what’s yours is theirs, get the hell out of their way. Do as I say, not as I do — period.
And here we are.
Willy James says
Simply stated, ” He is as full of shit as a Christmas turkey”! A typical politician who will say anything to get elected. Sorry Paul, sell your bullshit elsewhere. You know dam well you are not about to roll back property taxes.