A.G. Gancarski
Gov. Ron DeSantis continues to leverage property tax as a political issue, arguing that the funding mechanism reduces Floridians to being “wards of the local government.”
But he doesn’t feel the same about a House proposal to cut sales taxes by 3/4 of a penny to 5.25%.
During a press conference, the Governor again argued that property taxes have emboldened local governments at the expense of homeowners who may relocate for jobs.
“We have a relatively mobile workforce. I mean, if you’re somebody that has a job in Tampa and then you have a better offer to come to Orlando, you sell that house. But then now you’re buying a new house at a higher value. You’re locked into a higher tax base right there. And so that has been something that’s been very difficult for a lot of people to afford,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis also said again that foreign tourists could make up for the elimination of property taxes, via efforts to “offload the tax burden to non-Floridians.”
“I want Canadian tourists and Brazilian tourists subsidizing the state and making it so Florida residents pay less taxes. I don’t want to give Canadians a tax cut,” DeSantis said, referring to out-of-staters paying sales taxes.
Though Canadians aren’t flying to Florida as much as they were before Donald Trump began to float annexing the country, DeSantis says they still love the state and him.
“They said the Canadians weren’t going to come. I’m with my kids, you know, we were down in Spring Break and we’re at Legoland. And all these people are coming up to me for pictures, which is fine. I normally do that” DeSantis said.
“I’d say like 80% of them were Canadians. And I’m like, I thought you guys weren’t coming to Florida anymore. ‘Oh, no, we love Florida.’ No, so we’re going to continue to be a destination.”
To that end, he voiced his objections to the sales tax cut proposed by the House.
“The issue with that is people, one, are not clamoring for sales tax if they’re clamoring for property tax reliefs. There’s no property tax relief in that proposal. But it also allows relief for foreigners. It allows relief for visitors and part-time residents. I think the tax relief needs to be focused on Floridians,” he said.
DeSantis lauded the House for looking to cut the budget by $5 billion, but said it should go to property tax relief for homesteaded properties, “likely about $1,000 per homesteaded property.”
That said, he did leave an opening for sales tax relief contingent on a millage break, saying there was a scenario where he could support lower sales taxes also.
“Well, we’re going to support lower taxes. And so I veto higher taxes when they come down the pike and I support lower taxes. I’m fine with doing sales tax reductions. Heck, I’ve proposed sales tax reductions and enacted many sales tax reductions since I’ve been governor, and I’m happy to do that, but I also think that how are you cutting taxes? Are you going to focus on what gets you the most banging for the Buck to help Florida residents? That is where I think the focus needs to be. So you got to do property relief. If you want to do sales on top of that, I’m all for tha. But this property stuff needs to be addressed.”
DeSantis would like a ballot initiative during next year’s General Election to eliminate property taxes altogether. He argues that local budgets have ballooned in recent years and that increased property taxes, which burden homeowners of modest means, have helped that happen. Yet he also says that rural counties without tourism might have a different property tax scheme than places in South Florida to where visitors flock.
Tim Weisheyer of the Florida Realtors said his group of 240,000 real estate agents backed the property tax proposal as a way of trying to “preserve the American dream,” to “open up the marketplace,” and to protect people on fixed incomes.
The American dream notwithstanding, elimination of property taxes would leave holes in current budgets.
As the Florida Policy Institute noted in a criticism of the tax cut concept, property taxes make up roughly a sixth of county and city revenue and more than half of school district revenue. If the taxes were eliminated, it would leave a revenue hole of more than $2,000 for every man, woman and child in the state.
That money would not come from the state, DeSantis said earlier this year.
“Don’t let anyone tell you we’re going to seek to raise state taxes because this body will not pass tax increases, and this Governor will not sign any tax increases,” he said during the State of the State address.
In lieu of state support and property taxes, local option taxes may be an option. These include extra levies on hotels, food and fuel, along with other discretionary sales surtaxes. But state law caps many of these, and some areas are more maxed out than others, complicating this potential workaround.
12 comments
Michael K
March 31, 2025 at 10:02 am
Now that Canadians are limited to 30 day visits – and the growing US hostility toward our northern neighbors and former allies – I guess the fantasy of snowbirds giving us tax relief is DOA. Canadian travel has dropped 70% thanks to Trump.
Peachy
March 31, 2025 at 10:10 am
Went to the Florida Panther vs Montreal Canadian game yesterday. You are completely full of crap. Half the arena were Montreal fans. Everyone got along. There were no problems at all and both sides were completely respectful to each country’s national anthem.
MarvinM
March 31, 2025 at 10:50 am
I doubt actually half the arena was Montreal fans. There were way more red shirts in the crowd, generally indicating Panther fan.
Plus, just because someone is a Canadians fan does not necessarily mean they are from Canada. People can pick and choose their favored sports teams for many, many reasons other than where they are from.
Meanwhile, here in Hollywood where I usually see a ton of car plates from Quebec between Christmas and Easter, I have hardly seen any.
Denying that Florida is going to have reduced tourism mostly due to Trump’s policies, is not going to help our economy.
DeSantis had better do something, or the Florida economy he hands over to whoever wins in 2026 is going to have a hell of a mess to dig out from.
Peachy
March 31, 2025 at 11:13 am
Most of the Montreal fans were wearing red as well. Lots of them were there. People sitting next to us, were Montreal fans. You obviously weren’t there.
MarvinM
March 31, 2025 at 1:45 pm
No, I wasn’t there, at that one game, but you likewise were not driving around Hollywood like I have been for twenty years, and I have only seen one Quebec license plate on a car this season when I previously saw dozens on any giving outing, shopping trip, etc. from January through March if not December through April.
The point is, neither of our anecdotes PROVES tourists are still coming or are not coming to Florida.
The problem is the Florida economy relies a good deal upon tourists taxes (hotels room bookings for example, which by the way Florida residents also pay when they decided to vacay within the state which is hard not to do economically because peninsula).
I’ll bet by the end of the year, the state will be minus millions of dollars of tourist income they were expecting. And then next year (2026) Florida will have a tough budget session and will be slashing all sorts of things and will have to raise maybe taxes but certainly fees (that’s their fav go to – raising fees on car registrations, etc.)
And the Trump tariffs ain’t gonna help either. So it is only going to get worse.
Michael K
March 31, 2025 at 10:19 am
Travel from Canada down as trade war escalates:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2025/03/27/canadian-us-flight-demand-tanks/82692079007/
KathrynA
March 31, 2025 at 12:01 pm
Why don’t we keep property taxes and fund education, fire fighters, police and roads properly and keep our bodies of water clean? We don’t seem to be doing any of the above well so why do we want to cut the revenue base?
Peachy
March 31, 2025 at 12:05 pm
The largest portion of my property tax bill goes to the county public school system.
MarvinM
March 31, 2025 at 12:41 pm
If you don’t want an income tax, explain to me how else schools are going to be funded?
Peachy
March 31, 2025 at 1:00 pm
Florida doesn’t have an income tax. I know you are aware of this Marvin. I was replying to Kathryn A and her point about funding education. I have never advocated to remove property taxes. It would be nice but I believe it is a pipe dream.
tom palmer
March 31, 2025 at 6:28 pm
There are ample property tax breaks for retirees on fixed incomes like me and additional breaks for lower-income folks if they are homeowners. This is a much more complicated proposal than Gov. DeSantis lets on. What about special taxing districts that rely completely on property tases? What about voter-approved property tax levies for environmental lands, schools and road improvements? Sales tax increases require voter approval and many fail. Many counties are already maxed out on local gas taxes. You get the idea.
Hope
April 1, 2025 at 10:36 am
We agree that the primary residence should be free of Real Estate Taxes otherwise we do not own our homes we are renting earth from the government…
Not sure about all of you on these discussions but after living in my home for 44 years, now on a fixed income, I can no longer afford R/E Taxes and Property Insurance…
Government tries to build affordable housing for the elderly, would it not be the right thing to do but to ELIMINATE Property Taxes from our primary homes.
This will not apply to commercial R/E, nor will it apply to second or investment property…