The Legislature in Tallahassee on Friday began exploring in earnest proposals that would reduce or eliminate property taxes, a populist move that would dramatically help with housing affordability but could fundamentally change how communities pay for local government services, including fire departments, trash pickup, city parks, and more.
An advisory arm for the Legislature focused on revenue forecasts, the Office of Economic and Demographic Research, met in the Capitol to review at least eight proposals by lawmakers. Gov. Ron DeSantis has urged lawmakers to go back to the drawing board, deriding the ideas put forward so far as half measures that would fall short of his efforts to eliminate residential property taxes entirely across Florida.
The clock is ticking as state leaders work to lock in what exactly Floridians would see on ballots if they were to vote on property tax changes. Continuing rivalry between DeSantis – who is entering his last year in office – and House lawmakers could muddy the waters.
The governor tore into the Legislature, saying its attempts to reduce property taxes don’t go far enough. The most dramatic of the proposals would cut more than $10 billion from county and city budgets across the state, according to budget experts.
DeSantis has said, without offering specific detail,s that taxes on out-of-state and foreign tourists who vacation in Florida could help pay for eliminating property taxes. His administration has also spent months auditing spending by local governments to make the case that there is too much wasteful spending.
RELATED: More than 60% of Floridians want property tax reform, survey finds
Just days before Friday’s meeting, DeSantis said that he has nothing to do with the discussions, attacking House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami.
“I’ve not talked to him about it at all,” DeSantis said at a press conference in Tampa. “The reality is, he’s not been someone who’s been supportive of these efforts.”
Perez fired back, calling the governor “small and petty” and insinuating that DeSantis would be fine slashing school budgets. The eight House proposals would require leaving school property tax districts untouched and also ban local governments from cutting law enforcement budgets.
“The governor weirdly called [the proposals] ‘milquetoast’,” Perez wrote in a statement after DeSantis’ conference. “I look forward to seeing the governor’s proposed budget, where he makes up for the $21 billion for schools that he plans to cut.”
In 2023, the average property owner paid $1,732 in taxes, about 2% of the average household income in Florida.
Local government leaders are worried that they won’t have a voice in a fight that would end with their budget in the crosshairs.
“It will wipe out parks and recreation,” Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey told state lawmakers, urging them to reach out when ironing out the details of their proposals. “It will wipe out neighborhood affairs.”
The proposals include providing additional property tax discounts on a homeowner’s primary residence or eliminating such taxes entirely. Perez said more than one ballot measure could end up in front of voters next year. DeSantis hates that idea, saying the House thinks Floridians are “stupid.”
“It’s a political game, not a serious attempt to get it done for the people,” DeSantis wrote on social media. He suggested that putting several proposals on the ballot would mean none of them earn the 60% support required to amend the Florida constitution.
The vote on property taxes could happen during midterm primaries in July or the November general election.
RELATED: Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves open to property tax reform amid ongoing state audit
The relationship between House lawmakers and the governor has never been worse. Earlier this year, the governor battled representatives over immigration legislation. The House also pushed hard to investigate the Hope Florida Foundation, headed by Casey DeSantis, after charity leaders were accused of channeling millions into a committee aimed at stopping marijuana from being legalized in Florida.
Budget cuts from changes to property taxes in Florida could send shockwaves through local communities.
“It would be detrimental to counties like Franklin, which is already a small, rural, fiscally constrained county,” said Jessica Ward, the vice chair of the Franklin County Commission in Florida’s Panhandle. “All it would take is one big storm like Hurricane Michael to come and annihilate us, and we would be done.”
The proposals under review Friday shared two provisions: No touching public school budgets, and no touching money for law enforcement. That still leaves fire departments, parks and recreation, emergency services, and more facing the chopping block.
The most dramatic proposal, by Rep. Kevin Steele, R-Hudson, would eliminate all property taxes on primary residences. Another by Rep. Monique Miller, R-Palm Bay, would do the same over a period of 10 years by gradually raising homestead exemptions, which are the discounts applied to a homeowner’s primary residence.
A resolution by Rep. Juan Carlos Porras, R-Miami, would eliminate homestead property taxes for people over 65. Proposals by Reps. Shane Abbott, R-DeFuniak Springs; Demi Busatta, R-Coral Gables; Toby Overdorf, R-Stuart; and Jon Albert, R-Winter Haven, would offer steeper homestead tax exemptions.
Rep. Griff Griffitts, R-Panama City, proposed re-assessing home values every three years instead of annually.
Eliminating property taxes entirely – without replacing that revenue from other sources – could cost local governments an average of 28% of their funding, according to U.S. Census figures. Some communities would be more affected than others.
In Flagler County, along Florida’s east coast, eliminating homestead property taxes would slash 37% of the county’s general fund budget of nearly $179 million. If the most drastic of the property tax proposals passed, more than half the county’s general fund would be spent on the sheriff’s office.
Gutting homestead property taxes would be a $16.5 million hit for the city of North Port, south of Sarasota. That would leave around $71 million in the general budget, and about half that would have to go to its police department. Funding for firefighters and emergency medical services could be cut in the wake of proposed changes.
Lawmakers recognized that voters might be reluctant to change property taxes if it would cut money for schools or law enforcement.
Griffitts said any policy that would lead to public safety cuts would be a political nightmare.
“We have to figure it out, doing it in a conscientious way so that we, the legislators, don’t put something on the ballot in ‘26 that is going to have devastating effects and long-term impacts on cities and counties,” Griffitts said during a legislative hearing last month. “I don’t think any of the 160 of us up here want to have that on our shoulders.”
DeSantis and Florida’s chief financial officer, Blaise Ingoglia, have worked to squash those concerns.
“We’ve seen this playbook before,” Ingoglia said at a Jacksonville press conference, downplaying local governments’ worries of budget cuts. “They came out with these sob stories, saying that you’re going to call 911 and nobody’s going to show up.”
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This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The reporter can be reached at michael.orlando@freshtakeflorida.com. You can donate to support our students here.