A.G. Gancarski
Florida’s Governor is pressing the case for property tax abatement, saying he won’t entertain a House plan to cut sales taxes from 6% to 5.25%.
At Tampa’s Hula Bay Club, Gov. Ron DeSantis convened a roundtable designed to address his stalled-out request to phase out millage in favor of taxing “snowbirds and tourists” via hotel and consumption taxes.
“This is what it means to be a low-tax state,” he said.
But DeSantis also directly threatened to veto House Speaker Daniel Perez’s proposal as lawmakers look to hammer out a budget and tax framework during an extended Session.
DeSantis said he is willing to work with Senators and “relevant House members” on a Florida-first tax package, while saying the House sales tax reduction proposal is a nonstarter in any budget deal.
“None of the Senators support it,” DeSantis said. “Honestly, a lot of the House members don’t support it either, but the way the House is run, you know, they threaten you, they take away your committee, they do all that.”
DeSantis bemoaned that “Canadian tourists” would get a “tax break” under the Perez plan while visiting Florida, and said any proposal that emerges should focus on relief for Florida residents.
“I can tell you any Florida-last tax package is going to be dead on arrival,” DeSantis said. “We are not going to kneecap our ability to provide you property tax relief just so we can give a little bit of a benefit to Canadian tourists.”
DeSantis wants an amendment on the 2026 ballot to eliminate the tax on primary homeowners, but has thus far been frustrated by the House, which has instituted a 37-person select committee that includes what the Governor calls “far-left” Democrats, intended to “smother” his proposal “in the crib.”
He said House leadership “reflexively opposed” his proposal due to personal animus against him.
The Governor said “big growth” in city budgets raises the question of how much money cities actually need, urging a return to budget levels of 2019 or 2020, a time before the consequences emerged from COVID-era monetary supply expansion under Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
The roundtable members backed the Governor’s position. Republican Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, a strong DeSantis supporter and potential Chief Financial Officer appointee, lauded the Governor for being “ahead of the curve” on property taxes, saying citizens are in “revolt” amid general fund budgets that have doubled in “a lot” of cities over the last five years.
Ingoglia also noted that DeSantis’ plan would give the average homeowner a $1,000 rebate.
Bob McClure of the James Madison Institute argued that property tax is “about the American dream … wealth creation” and “what’s next for our children,” praising the Governor’s proposal as “key for a better future,” “cleaner for the consumer” and a boon for “wealth creation.”
3 comments
ScienceBLVR
May 7, 2025 at 11:28 am
As someone who has had a homesteaded property for over thirty years, I will say $1000 property tax rebate would pretty much eliminate that expense for me- for me and ONLY those who own homes here. But what about the millions of Floridians who don’t own homes? Will landlords rebate those fees to renters? A sales tax reduction helps ALL residents, even those pesky Canadians. Everyone could use some tax relief not just property owners.
Anonymous
May 7, 2025 at 1:04 pm
So Governor DeSantis says Florida shouldn’t give Canadian tourists a break — but it’s perfectly fine to give Caribbean students who don’t live in Florida exclusive in-state scholarships according to Boca Living May issue meanwhile, DACA students who’ve lived, studied, and paid taxes here for years get nothing. We are denied in-state tuition access, we are denied our futures. Is this what it means to play politics with people’s futures.
American Patriot
May 8, 2025 at 1:07 am
This entire political debate by the Governor and the Speaker regarding tax relief is simply political demagoguery. A reduction of a 1/4 of a penny in the sales taxes is simply insulting the taxpayer at the expense of potential pay raises to Florida Highway Troopers or School Teachers. A reduction in property taxes would require a constitutional ballot question which the Speaker refused to allow. A meaningful ballot question to amend the Florida Constitution would have been to ask voters if Florida homeowners who has paid property taxes on their homestead property for more than 30 years be exempt from paying property taxes on their homestead property? If homeowners can pay off their mortgages after 30 years, why should they be subject to paying property taxes for the rest of their life without relief and even face foreclosure if they fail to make a tax payment on a home that is owned free and clear? The Speaker, the Senate President and Florida Legislators also failed to help homeowners with meaningful reform of the homeowner insurance industry when insurance rates are pricing Floridians out of homeownership; exorbitant monthly electric bills paid to utility companies supposedly regulated by the State of Florida, and skyrocketing auto insurance rates paid by Florida motorists. Instead of meaningful financial relief for Florida residents Speaker Perez and Governor DeSantis played cheap political demagoguery with Floridians lives by wasting an entire year in Tallahassee doing nothing for the public good. Shameful politics. Floridians should consider amending the Florida Constitution to restrict the Legislature to meeting every other year saving Floridians from the harm and waste of having these politicians meet in Tallahassee annually to waste our time in local bars, expensive restaurants and weekend junkets funded by lobbyists.