A.G. Gancarski
A 37-person House committee examining the future of property taxes won’t get a chance to grill Gov. Ron DeSantis about his thoughts.
“No, I’m not going to go sit in front of a committee. That’s not the role of the chief executive,” DeSantis told a reporter Wednesday.
Committee Co-Chair Toby Overdorf noted Tuesday that DeSantis had been invited to appear. But the Governor, who has said that the “far-left … dog and pony show” panel is a way for House Speaker Daniel Perez to dodge action on his proposals to eliminate homestead taxes, is clearly saying no go.
During his remarks Wednesday, DeSantis accused the House of duplicity, saying he was “skeptical” of the panel’s intent.
“Remember when I called the Special Session for immigration? The response was, ‘Oh, we in the House legislate, the Governor doesn’t legislate,’ right? And so they didn’t want to do it. Now they’re saying, ‘Well, it’s the Governor’s responsibility to tell us.’ Well, you can pick one, right? It’s got to be one or the other.”
Perez slammed DeSantis on Tuesday, saying “there’s no difference between him and any seventh grader in Miami-Dade County right now who tweets” in an attempt to goad him into appearing.
DeSantis didn’t respond to those remarks Wednesday. But he made it clear that he believed the House was acting in bad faith, noting that there are people in the House who compare his desire to offer a $1,000 property tax rebate to a “Joe Biden–Gavin Newsom welfare handout.”
While DeSantis said he has “hope” the House will “put something strong on the ballot,” he clearly isn’t willing to make the pitch personally to a committee stacked with people from both parties who are willing to cross him in Year 7 of his administration.
