FLORIDA – Property taxes are a big topic in Florida right now as lawmakers work out how best to help residents who are struggling under the rising costs of homeowners insurance and other skyrocketing bills.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has voiced support for reducing or ditching property taxes altogether.
Within the last week, he posted on X saying:
“Property taxes are local, not state. So we’d need to do a constitutional amendment (requires 60% of voters to approve) to eliminate them (which I would support) or even to reform/lower them… We should put the boldest amendment on the ballot that has a chance of getting that 60%… I agree that taxing land/property is the more oppressive and ineffective form of taxation.”
Property taxes are local, not state. So we’d need to do a constitutional amendment (requires 60% of voters to approve) to eliminate them (which I would support) or even to reform/lower them…
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) February 13, 2025
We should put the boldest amendment on the ballot that has a chance of getting that… https://t.co/WpOQmjNl0X
Property taxes have traditionally played a major role in funding Florida schools and local governments.
As DeSantis said in his post, eliminating property taxes in Florida would require an amendment to the state’s constitution that would have to be approved by voters on an upcoming ballot.
According to Smart Asset, a free online service that helps people make financial decisions, the average Floridian pays roughly $2,386 in property taxes every year.
In Jacksonville, News4JAX Political Analyst Rick Mullaney said property taxes account for more than half of the River City’s budget.
“For example, the operating budget in Jacksonville is over 1.9 billion. Over a billion of that comes from property taxes. By the way, statewide and the other 67 counties and the more than 400 municipalities, typically, over 50% of their revenue is also coming from property taxes from the school board and education separately, the majority of their funding is from property taxes,” Mullaney said.
In the meantime, Sen. Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers, filed a bill this week that would lead to the state studying the consequences of eliminating property taxes in Florida.
Last year, a lawmaker proposed a similar bill to study the impact of eliminating property taxes by replacing them with a sales tax. That proposal died in committee.
Martin’s bill would direct the Legislature’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research to “conduct a study to establish a framework to eliminate property taxes…and to replace property tax revenues through budget reductions, sales-based consumption taxes and locally determined consumption taxes authorized by the Legislature.”
Among other things, the analysis would have to look at the effect of eliminating property taxes on “public services, including education, infrastructure, and emergency services” and evaluate whether a shift to “consumption-based taxes would make Florida more attractive to businesses compared to other states.”
“How do you replace the money, what taxes are you going to increase? What taxes are you going to have to replace that lost funding? Remember, the Florida constitution already has a ban on income tax, so there’s no income tax in Florida. If you were to have no property tax in Florida, you have to ask the question, how are we going to fund fundamental services,” Mullaney said.