One top GOP lawmaker said, ‘I think we should caution our members as to the outcomes’ if Florida axes property taxes.
How well will the Florida Legislature work with Gov. Ron DeSantis?
FLORIDA TODAY’s John Torres discusses the 2025 legislative session with reporters James Call and John Kennedy in this excerpt fro the Florida Pulse.
- Florida Republicans are considering phasing out property taxes, a move championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
- The proposal faces a significant hurdle: Replacing the $50 billion in revenue property taxes generate for essential services like schools and law enforcement.
- Critics argue that shifting the tax burden from property to sales taxes would disproportionately affect lower-income residents.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has been talking a lot about how unfair property taxes are, and how he’d like to see the end of them in Florida – even if that isn’t likely in the last two years of his second term.
Some of his GOP colleagues are taking him up on the challenge, pledging to phase them out over the next eight years. But there are few details on how they will make up the approximately $50 billion in revenues those taxes generate for schools, law enforcement, utilities, water management districts and more.
“We are here on the second day of the regular session of 2025 to announce the beginning of the end of property taxes in the free state of Florida,” said Rep. Ryan Chamberlin, R-Belleview.
Chamberlin sponsored a bill last year to require a study examining the impacts of phasing out property taxes. The bill didn’t pass but a similar version (SB 852) has been filed this year by Sen. Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers.
And even if the study doesn’t move forward, Chamberlin has a bill (HB 357) to install a $100,000 exemption on all properties – homesteaded and non-homesteaded – by putting the measure before voters in the 2026 election. Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, also has a bill (SB 1016) to expand the homestead exemption from $50,000 to $75,000.
Chamberlin said cutting and eventually removing all property taxes is needed in the face of a housing affordability crisis in the state. He noted property tax revenues have risen 40% on average across the state in the last four years.
Those property taxes, however, bring in about $50 billion in revenue for local governments, helping to fund critical services, such as public schools, law enforcement and some utilities.
To remove that revenue stream, lawmakers would need to find a way to make up the money – Florida also doesn’t have a state income tax – to avoid closing schools and slashing police budgets, for instance. And if the Sunshine State got rid of property taxes, it’d be the first to do so.
The challenge: Finding another source of revenue
Although he doesn’t have a concrete plan in place yet, Chamberlin said he’s hopeful DeSantis’ efforts to find bloat in local governments, combined with an increase in sales taxes could make up for the loss of property taxes.
In recent weeks DeSantis has continually stressed the unfairness of property taxes, saying that an annual levy on someone’s home means it can never really be owned, merely rented from the government. Moreover, rising home values are theoretical, DeSantis maintains, based on an estimate of market value, not an actual sale price. As those values have risen in recent years, the taxes are “pinching” residents, he said.
If property appraisers “are saying your house is 20% more, even if you have a homestead (exemption) it doesn’t provide you full protection,” DeSantis said Wednesday at a press conference in Tampa.
For decades, though, lawmakers have sought to cut or limit spiking property taxes. In 1995 the Save Our Homes amendment capped increases in the assessed value of homesteaded properties at 3% per year. Non-homestead properties also have assessed value hikes capped at 10% per year.
But Florida’s rampant growth means rising values have pushed revenues for many local governments higher, even without increasing property tax rates. That growth, though, also means a greater need for the services local governments provide.
Democrats have noted any tax swap that increases sales taxes while removing property taxes would be regressive, requiring poorer residents to pay more while wealthier property owners pay fewer taxes as a portion of their income.
Some Democrats also are skeptical a dramatic reduction, much less the complete elimination of property taxes, can be done without large cuts to vital services.
The governor “never talks about what services he would cut if we move forward with that proposal. So which teacher would the governor fire?” said House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell of Tampa. “Which law enforcement officer would he tell to go home? Does he not want trash picked up in a timely manner in these neighborhoods?”
At DeSantis’ urging, Republicans in the Legislature passed a bill in 2021 to prevent local governments from cutting their police budgets without approval from the state. It’s unclear how that would be possible if property taxes were eliminated, but Chamberlin said that phasing them out over time will allow the state to prevent any deep cuts to law enforcement.
“We’ve got plenty of room to take care of lowering people’s taxes immediately while we figure out this plan,” Chamberlin said. “We’re not looking to cut funding out of police departments, as a matter of fact I’m looking to fund them more with a new structured plan that’s even smarter.”
This wouldn’t be the first time lawmakers have tried to end property taxes. As House Speaker in 2008, Marco Rubio tried to phase them out, only to run into similar concerns over replacing the tax with an increased sales tax.
Even some Republicans are wary of taking such a big step.
“Everybody in this building is sitting around talking about this whole tax issue,” said Sen. Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, who served as Senate president the previous two years.
“There’s a lot of people who own property that are paying taxes that don’t live here. I feel pretty uncomfortable about some of these broad, sweeping statements about eliminating property taxes. I think we should caution our members as to the outcomes if we just do that.”
Gray Rohrer is a reporter with the USA TODAY Network-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at grohrer@gannett.com. Follow him on X: @GrayRohrer.
