Byron Donalds cautious on property tax cuts

The man who could be the next Governor wants to put the brakes on a policy proposal of the incumbent.

During an appearance on Florida’s Voice Radio, Rep. Byron Donalds diagnosed potential problems with Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ stated desire to let voters decide on eliminating property taxes.

“I would love to get rid of property taxes, but I think that we have a lot of counties in the state that do not have the tourism base that Miami or Naples or Fort Myers or Palm Beach County or Orlando have. And so in these rural counties and these northern counties in the state of Florida, what does a proposal like that do to these counties?”

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. He believes the burden can be shifted to foreigners and tourists. 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.

Donalds, meanwhile, has praise for the House Select Committee on Property Taxes, a 37-person panel that will take a methodical and bipartisan look at the future of the funding source, urging policy makers to be “thoughtful about this going forward because it really does impact the state financially, not just today, but where it’s going to go into the future and there’s a lot of stuff that has to get done.”

“I’m glad the Legislature, I think they’re on the way to studying property taxes. Let’s see what kind of adjustments we can make,” Donalds said, describing a “big conversation” ahead.

“I think what they’re going to end up doing is studying the property tax proposal overall. Yeah. Whether they’re completely get rid of it, get rid of it for homesteaded property, or even do reductions for homesteaded property in Florida,” he said, urging policymakers to be “mindful” and “clear eyed.”