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
Tired of it says
So typical of Republicans. Do something that appears to be good on the surface but lacks the planning necessary to actually make it work.
Joe says
Cutting local Real Estate taxes is a local issue. The Governor shouldn’t force Unfunded Mandates on localities.
The locality should decide what budgets need to cut or what taxes need to be raised to compensate for the lost revenue.
The State Government needs to stay out of local issues!
I know the Governor wants to put cutting taxes on his resume, but he should stick with State Taxes!
me says
both sides hate giving up our money
it’s not the job of government to live off of us
Taxpayer says
He wants to slash property taxes which includes slashing services, vote no for this political nightmare to property owners.
TR says
He only wants to cut property taxes for the people who qualify. There are certain things that have to be met in order to be exempt from paying property taxes. But the na sayers don’t listen to the facts and thing all property taxes will stop. NOT THE CASE!
Laurel says
Y’all understand that you will still be held accountable for property taxes, right? This whole bull about “owning your home” is a hype. The bills still have to be paid, including paying for private schooling.
Your roads are still crumbling. How do you fix them?
The real question is: What is the agenda behind this ruse?
Callmeishmael says
It’s the first stage of what will ultimately result in a state income tax when they realize they can’t make up the deficits through increases in fees and sales taxes.
Koyote says
@Laurel : “The real question is: What is the agenda behind this ruse?”
In my opinion (backed by another pre-Trump nickel) is that this is a ploy to force the local governments (county, city, town, et.al.) to have to come begging to the state legislature for any significant monies. Notice there is/are no provisions for revenue replacement other than the Property taxes DeSantis says Florida should ‘retain’??
And, once again, we are left hanging in the breeze about just Where? the funds will come from to pay for the local services that aren’t being paid for by the ‘retained’ taxes?
Maybe we can go to a ‘Pay-per-fire’ or ‘Pay-per-crime’ systems .. call the police or the fire department on your app – but have a credit card handy?
Jim says
Just call this what it is. DeSantis wants to leave office and claim he cut taxes in Florida “like no governor ever has before”. He doesn’t care what the impact of that is. He won’t be around to deal with it and if/when it goes south, he’ll do the politic thing and say those that followed him screwed it up. If he’d done it, it would have worked out great!
This is DeSantis (and most Republicans) playlist. Make noise on a subject most voters will see as good (who wants to pay taxes?) and then disappear and leave the mess to others.
He did such a great job spending money on Alligator Alcatraz , why shouldn’t we trust him to know what he’s doing?
Run for president in 2028, Governor. You’ll do as well as Renner is doing running for governor. Both are well deserved endings to careers damaging their constituents.
Deborah Coffey says
Alligator Alcatraz? Paying tens of millions to parents of private school children while taking money out of public schools? We should trust Ron DeSantis’ judgment on “no property taxes?” Wouldn’t it be nice not to have to pay that $7,000/year! Hope I don’t have a fire. Hope I don’t need new shock absorbers for the car. Sorry I can’t get reasonable homeowners insurance. What if I need 911?
Just say, “NO to Fascist drugs.”