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.
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.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.
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Kneeds2Know+
Once again, DeSantis’s second try to “eliminate homestead property taxes” is a classic bait-and-switch. His abstract proposal isn't about saving the middle class—it’s about securing his post-presidential legacy.
By engineering a summer special session to force this onto the November ballot, DeSantis is trying to use a populist tax cut to juice conservative voter turnout before he leaves office for his national political dream, but he is intentionally leaving future leaders to deal with the fallout.
Framing this as "giving money back" merely distracts us from a cold reality that Floridians don’t realize their own politicians plan to fund its multibillion-dollar budget deficit directly on the backs of renters and the working poor. Replacing billions in local revenue means skyrocketing sales taxes or higher taxes on landlords, which will immediately be passed down as higher rent.
When you squeeze renters until neighborhoods crumble, you devalue the entire community. You cannot maintain a high-value home where the teachers, nurses, and first responders who serve you can no longer afford to live. While the middle-class dream slips away, we are being tricked into stepping on the person below us, while those at the top walk away with the ladder. In this feedback loop, "me-first" means everyone else loses.
Tuesday, May 19 Report this
dreed135
Beyond being another DeSantis steppingstone which he perceives as beneficial to his own political gain, to me this proposal to eliminate a large portion of existing property taxes is nothing more than a smoke screen designed to take the camera away from our ridiculous homeowner’s and automobile insurance crisis. For years our legislature has been promising insurance reform and for a plethora of very thin reasons it has yet to occur.
Does anyone among us truly believe that a reduction in homesteaded property tax is not going to be replaced by some other tax, possibly a state income tax? Does anyone believe that our government at any level is going to stand still for a reduction in revenue income without finding and implementing supplementary sources?
Florida currently stands as the most expensive state in the nation for both homeowner’s and automobile insurance rates. If our reigning politicians truly want to offer financial relief to their constituents why is this insurance debacle always ignored? My suggestion is that tax reduction in any vein is political theater and grandstanding used to bolster a politician’s political career. If achieved, new tax sources can be quietly implemented at a later date.
If the same politicians attack the insurance industry then they are attacking major political donors who are lining their own pockets. Finding a new revenue source for that would be significantly more difficult than replacing reduced taxes
It is time to stop trying to deceive the Florida populous and once and for all address our real concerns, insurance being only one of many at this time.
Wednesday, May 20 Report this