House Speaker Daniel Perez announces select committee on property taxes

Late in an acrimonious legislative session certain to run into overtime, House Speaker Daniel Perez on Tuesday announced an intensive study of property taxes with an eye toward taking reforms before the voters next year.

Perez announced he was creating a Select Committee on Property Taxes that would craft a proposed constitutional amendment that could be passed by lawmakers at the start of next year’s session in January, then go to the ballot in November 2026. 

Perez included in his remarks a shot at Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has pushed for the elimination of property taxes, for not coming up with his own detailed proposal.

“Several months ago, Gov. DeSantis introduced the exciting and provocative idea of abolishing property taxes in Florida. Naturally, many of us had the same questions. How would elimination of property taxes work? If property taxes go away, how would local governments pay for the services? We expect local government to provide by police, fire, and infrastructure,” Perez said.

“Unfortunately, as the weeks have gone by, the governor has yet to come forward with any specific answers to those questions or with any specific plan or with actual bill language.”

Perez did stress, though, that the House would consider any proposal from the governor.

“If the governor comes forward with a proposal, we will hear it. All ideas are welcome. All voices are invited to be heard. This process is not about ego or pride of authorship or credit. This is about bringing the very best proposals before the people of Florida so that they have an opportunity to decide their own fate,” Perez said.

The speaker took another shot at the governor and the Senate for their proposed fiscal year 2025-26 spending plans, which run higher than the budget passed by the House.

“I am not oblivious to the impact that property tax reform would have on local governments, but we, as a House, have a unique credibility on this front, as we proposed to doing something neither the governor nor the Senate were willing to do, apply the same revenue restrictions to ourselves that we are asking local governments to endure.” 

The speaker tapped Reps. Toby Overdorf and Vicky Lopez as chair and vice chair of the panel, respectively. Perez encouraged members who want to serve on the panel to come forward.

“However, please remember that this select committee will be meeting throughout the rest of spring, summer, and into the fall. So if you are interested, be prepared to work,” he said.

Five potential reforms

Perez wants the select committee to begin its work by “exploring a variety of potential reforms,” including:

• Requiring every city, county, and special district to hold a referendum on the question of eliminating property taxes on homestead properties.
• Creating a new $500,000 homestead exemption, as well as a $1 million homestead exemption for properties owned by Floridians aged 65 and older, or who have had a homestead for 30 years, applicable to all non-school taxes.
• Authorizing the Legislature to increase the homestead exemption to any value by general law rather than constitutional amendment.
• Modifying the assessment increase limitations on property values: For homestead properties, changing the cap from the lower of 3% or consumer price index to a flat 3% over any three-year period for all taxes. For non-homestead properties, changing the cap from 10% annually to 15% over any three-year period for all non-school taxes.
• Protecting homeownership by eliminating the ability to foreclose on a homestead property due to a property tax lien.

Perez will announce the committee appointments Wednesday and the panel will meet this week. Usually, the last week of session (set to end Friday) is reserved for budget conferee meetings at which members of the House and Senate meet to hammer out the spending differences between the chambers.

The impasse over tax relief, though, has prevented that from occurring.

Tax impasse

DeSantis has pushed for the elimination of property taxes while Perez has championed rolling back the state’s sales tax by 0.75%, to 5.25%. The speaker’s plan also would roll back all other sales tax rates by the same amount — commercial rent from 2% to 1.25%; electricity from 4.35% to 3.6%; new mobile home purchases from 3% to 2.25%; and coin-operated amusement machines from 4% to 3.25%.

Senate President Ben Albritton supports tax relief but earlier this session floated a more modest$2.1 billion  plan  centered around a permanent elimination of the sales tax on clothing and shoes costing $75 or less. Other parts of his plan include a permanent reduction in the business rent tax from 2% to 1%, a one-time credit for vehicle registration fees, and several sales tax holidays.

The difference between the House and Senate proposals for fiscal year 2025-26 is $4.4 billion. The Senate made seven spending and tax relief offers to the House as of Monday but none were accepted.

“Given the importance of this issue, you cannot afford further delay in moving this conversation beyond promises or generalities. We need to put in the time in order to give stakeholders meaningful opportunities and make sure that we put the very best proposal or proposals on the ballot as amendments to the Florida Constitution,” Perez said.