DeSantis quibbles with Legislature’s changes to his property tax cut

Although the Florida Legislature removed several significant provisions of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ proposal to provide tax relief to homestead property owners last week, the governor said Wednesday that he intends to put one of those provisions back in place through a special legislative session this fall if the measure wins the 60% vote required for approval.

The constitutional amendment going on the November statewide ballot would:

• Increase the homestead exemption for non-school ad valorem taxes to existing Florida residents to $250,000 by 2028.
• Restrict how counties and cities may spend property-tax revenues.
• Limit future assessment growth on non-homesteaded property from the existing 10% to 5%.
• Create a residency waiting period for new Florida residents before they receive that enhanced exemption.

That’s not exactly the plan that the governor sent to lawmakers two weeks ago following a year-long public discussion, a plan he referred to Wednesday as “the most transformational property tax proposal in American history.”

The Legislature overhauled DeSantis’ proposal so that it would not apply to the property taxes used to fund Florida’s public school system. Lawmakers also:

• Removed a provision requiring the plan to eventually raise the homestead exemption to $500,000.
• Eliminated a proposed state trust fund intended to help local governments cover revenue shortfalls.
• Deleted a provision that would have allowed the governor’s office to spend $5.5 million on mailers to promote his property tax overhaul plan to voters.

While the proposal if approved would bring substantial tax relief to homeowners across the state, advocates for local governments warn it could devastate essential services because of the reduction in revenues.

Radio silence

The usually voluble governor went radio silent for days last week after the Legislature approved its joint resolution, an indication he wasn’t enthusiastic about the changes. He went quiet on the subject for nearly five full days before responding in a social media post Sunday night.

During a press conference in Hernando County Wednesday however, he spoke openly about the proposal and the Legislature’s changes for the first time. He said that if the voters approve in November, he intends to call a special session before he leaves office in January to have the Legislature create his state trust fund to aid local governments.

“They took out what I had proposed. That does not prevent them from still doing this after it passes,” he said. “So, what will happen is, I will work with them in November-December to implement what the voters pass. And, as part of that, they are going to have to do some type of program that’s going to provide grants.”

House Speaker-designate Sam Garrison, R-Fleming Island, sponsored an amendment to the resolution last week to remove the trust fund. He said he doesn’t support using state dollars to “backfill” local budget gaps.

DeSantis said Wednesday that “backfill” wasn’t a good word to use, because why would the state “want to backfill excessive spending?”

“We’re willing to give grants to ensure necessary services that we all depend on and we want, so I’m going to be in favor of doing that if we get to that point,” he said, adding, “Obviously, it’s not as far reaching as what I had proposed.”

The Legislature also rejected a provision to provide DeSantis with $5.5 million in taxpayer money to send property appraiser mailers promoting the amendment — which would fly in the face of a 2025 law aimed at the governor himself prohibiting use of  public funds to advocate for or against any issue subject to a proposed constitutional amendment.

The measure passed months after it was reported that DeSantis spent millions of taxpayer dollars fighting ballot measures on abortion rights and legalizing recreational cannabis in 2024.

‘Are you going to rely on a newspaper?

The governor said Wednesday that it is crucial to provide voters an informational notice about what they would save by approving the measure.

“Don’t you want to know?” he said. “I mean, are you going to rely on a newspaper to tell you the truth on this? I don’t think so. I mean, clearly, they have a very significant editorial slant that they’re going to try to do on property tax.”

Immediately following his announcement of his proposal two weeks ago during a press conference in Tampa ahead of the special session, DeSantis launched a calculator at saveourhomesfl.com that let homeowners type in their addresses to see what potential savings they might receive if his proposal passes.

However, he acknowledged Wednesday that the calculator is no longer accurate because the Legislature has now explicitly excluded school taxes from being reduced.

“That calculator, that was valid for our proposal. It’s not valid for the Legislature’s proposal,” he said. “But maybe they’ll come up with a calculator or something like that. I think that they should have put something so that you got notice on what you’re going to actually save so that people knew what they were voting on.”