‘Stay tuned:’ DeSantis wants to eliminate Florida property taxes. Could he pull it off?

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appeared to put the state’s property tax in his crosshairs this week after voicing his position on social media.

On Wednesday, he quoted a user on X who made the following post:

“Property Taxes should not be charged based on assumed value for new construction homes. I built my house affordably. I should have affordable property taxes to match.”

@jonmorrisis on X.com

In a response, DeSantis stated the following: “I agree!”

For homeowners in the Sunshine State, lowering or outright removing property taxes could greatly cut down on their expenses. As a state, Florida ranks around the middle of the pack when it comes to real-estate property tax rates, WalletHub reports.

Proponents of property taxes often assert that they’re a vital part of collecting revenue for local government functions, such as public schools and police stations.

But on the flip side, property taxes are typically deeply unpopular — the second-most unpopular behind federal income taxes, according to a recent Gallup poll.

Opponents argue that property taxes unfairly target homeowners, who have already taken on all of the other burdens that come with homeownership. Worse yet, tax incidence means that the cost of these taxes could even end up falling downstream to lower-income renters who make use of these properties.

Regardless, the question remains: could the state of Florida actually get rid of property taxes?

The short answer is: not easily.

Local governments are the ones that levy property taxes — not the state — so it would require a constitutional amendment to eradicate them statewide.

DeSantis addressed this fact himself shortly after he put out his message above on Wednesday afternoon, clarifying that he would indeed support their elimination.

But before voters can even decide on such a motion, an amendment would first have to be proposed via one of the following methods:

• A joint resolution of the Florida Legislature
• A citizens’ initiative
• A proposal from the Constitution Revision Commission
• A proposal from the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission

So far, there have been no citizens’ initiatives regarding the elimination of property taxes, nor have lawmakers proposed any such legislation. And even if they did, the amendment would still likely not go before voters until 2026 at the earliest.

Earlier this month, DeSantis directly addressed the subject during a news conference in Jacksonville, according to News 6 partner WJXT.

At the time, he pointed to rising home prices — sparked by a combination of demand spikes and inflation — though he said he plans to work with the Legislature before his term ends in 2027 to potentially get a constitutional amendment on the ballot to address issues like the homestead exemption.

“We can’t control private markets, but we can control how much they can tax you. So we’re going to be working over the next year and a half to see what we can present for voters to be able to vote in the next election for some major, major property tax limitations and reliefs,” DeSantis said.

Melbourne Mayor Paul Alfrey took to social media in a rebuke of the idea, even calling out Chandler Langevin of the Palm Bay City Council for appearing to support it.

Are you wanting to defund our Police and Fire departments????

I am very concerned of the idea of ending property taxes. Yes it sounds good, but usually if it sounds too good to be true it usually is. Even a Palm Bay Council member who just was elected and never went through a budget process is drinking the cool-aid.

But let me explain why….

Although the City of Melbourne has the LOWEST tax millage rate in over a decade our property taxes are not enough to pay or just Police and Fire services.

Just personal services cost of police and fire is 99% of property tax revenue. If you add in overall expenses for the two departments you are at 117% the property tax revenue. So expenses for police and fire exceed the revenue from property taxes.

For FY24/25 we budgeted our property tax revenue as $52,624,140. The personal services costs for police and fire is $52,195,758. If you add in operating expenses and capital outlay the total cost to run these two departments is $61,386,216.

Yes we do pay our Police and Fire the highest in Brevard County but they deserve it!!

I will fight anyone who tries to defund our public safety professionals, regardless of their position! I worked too hard to get us here!

Melbourne Mayor Paul Alfrey | 8:24 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, on Facebook (sic)

News 6 reached out to DeSantis’ office for more information about possible plans for such a proposal.

“For property taxes, as the governor said, that will take a constitutional amendment. So his tweet speaks for itself,” said the governor’s press secretary, Jeremy Redfern. “But stay tuned.”

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