Still without a public proposal to offer, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday doubled down on his year-long call to slash Florida’s property taxes.
His renewed push to amend Florida’s Constitution came during an afternoon roundtable in Brevard County, and just hours after his predecessor, former Gov. Rick Scott, cast doubt on the wisdom of cutting the tax without predetermined revenue backfills.
“[Cutting property taxes] does mean you’re going to have less room for extraneous expenses, but … would you rather have the homestead relief and not have extraneous [services], or would you rather have the extraneous [services] and keep pay intact?” DeSantis asked his audience.
He outlined a slew of property tax-related suggestions, although none that yet have appeared in a formal tax cut plan. These included expanding homestead exemptions, banning local governments from raising costs on small businesses, and preventing out-of-state transplants from immediately qualifying for homestead exemptions.
“I don’t want every Tom, Dick, and Harry from out of state moving and rushing to buy home here because they get a tax benefit,” DeSantis said, promising Floridian residents would come first under his plan. “I think if you move here after this is enacted, you got to pay tax for a certain period of time before you qualify for this.”
DeSantis plans to call a special session over the summer to cut property taxes, sometime after the state’s current special session on the budget but before mid-August — the deadline to print out proposals for the November ballot.
This comes nearly two years after the governor first pushed lawmakers to — initially — eliminate all property taxes. Republican House Speaker Danny Perez — who’s long-feuded with the governor — answered the call during the 2026 legislative session with a proposal DeSantis deemed “milquetoast.”
The initiative would have fully ended non-school property taxes for homesteaded properties beginning on Jan. 1, 2027. The Senate never considered a property tax measure.
‘Core things’
Not all Republicans are on board with slashing the tax, which pays for services like schools, law enforcement, and public parks. Scott, now a U.S. senator with a frosty relationship with DeSantis, told Fox Business that he didn’t think it would be possible to cut the levy.
“I’d love to get rid of the property taxes. Unfortunately, you’ve got to think about what you’re going to replace it with,” Scott said. “We already have a very efficient state. So, how are you going to fund education and transportation, the environment, things like that?”
On Monday, DeSantis said property taxes Florida retains should only pay for “public safety, police, fire, education,” and other “core things.” This comes after reports that local governments collected nearly $60 billion in property taxes today versus $32 billion in 2019.
The Florida Policy Institute, a non-partisan organization, estimated that eliminating property taxes for homesteaded properties would cost $18.5 billion. It found that 36% of property tax revenue comes from taxes levied on homesteaded properties.
–Liv Caputo, Florida Phoenix
Leave a Reply