At a press briefing, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) promoted a major property tax cut.
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NewsTranscript
00:00I think most people who've been in Florida over the recent years have seen you know on the one
00:06hand if you're a homeowner and you bought a home five ten years ago your home's worth a lot more
00:12now just based on the market based on people wanting to have a demand to live in Florida
00:17and so you know there's there's obviously a lot of benefits that come to that I mean I know people
00:22who bought their homes for you know $250,000 30 years ago and now they're assessed at over
00:28a million dollars that's not something that is out of the ordinary and that is a source of wealth
00:34particularly if you're free and clear of the mortgage but one of the drawbacks of that is
00:41you have bought a house at a certain price you can obviously afford that you may have
00:45been taxed at that price at the time now you have local governments telling you well actually no
00:50your house is worth a lot more pony up more to us in the form of property taxes and so people
00:57have seen even with homestead exemption that has not been enough to be able to protect people
01:03against these rising assessments and then of course if you're in a situation and look we have a
01:09relatively mobile workforce I mean if you're somebody that has a job in Tampa and then you
01:13have a better offer to come to Orlando you sell that house but then now you're buying a new house
01:19at a higher value you're locked into a higher tax base right there and so that has been something
01:24that's been very difficult for a lot of people to afford and then of course you've got elderly
01:29on fixed income they had budgeted for a certain number of costs and now all of a sudden they're
01:35having to see more and more in the form of higher property assessments so we've recognized this as
01:43an issue I was the first I think elected official in Florida you know to call for a constitutional
01:49amendment to protect people against what's happening with property taxes now there's a
01:53lot that's going to go into that that'll be on the ballot hopefully in 2026 but of all the taxes
01:59that are impacting Floridians right now property taxes are the most significant I can tell you when
02:05people talk to me about taxes I would say it's like 99 talk about property taxes that is the
02:14something that that people are concerned about so when you're doing proposals whether it's working
02:19with the legislature whether it's putting something on the ballot to me the threshold
02:23question is the tax relief needs to be Florida first we need to focus on our Florida residents
02:30and to focus on in this case Florida homeowners particularly our homesteaded homeowners and we
02:36need to focus the relief there I want Canadian tourists and Brazilian tourists subsidizing the
02:43state and making it so Florida residents pay less taxes I don't want to give Canadians a tax cut
02:50so we understand that this is something that is really significant and one of the things we're
02:57looking to do and work with the legislature on is authorizing and I have a lot of authority as
03:03governor under both the constitution and statutes but authorizing a nice crisp doge effort for local
03:10governments where you'd have the keys to the kingdom you'd be able to to look at the payments
03:15the contracts and and then publicize this because if you look at the budgets it's very opaque there
03:21may be a line item you don't know where that money's being funneled as we've seen with the
03:25federal government it ends up going to all these different places we have major counties in this
03:30state that have had massive expansions of their budgets just in the last five or six years and
03:36the reason is they're getting more revenue from the property tax and is that do those budgets need
03:42to grow by that much I think the answer is probably going to be no but we want to be able to
03:47do that so that voters can see because they'll tell you oh they can't do property tax relief
03:52because then you're not going to have any police or any that's not true okay that is not true but
03:56that's what they'll say they'll say you're not gonna have any more schools you're not gonna do
03:59it no it's not true but I think we can show that through the doge effort so we want to be able to
04:03do that and then of course build up to uh having uh very robust constitutional protections and the
04:10thing about it is you know property taxes are an anomaly because you know they're not voluntary
04:16consumption taxes are basically voluntary and I go to the supermarket most of the stuff you buy
04:21there's not taxed right but if I buy some other stuff that is not considered a staple I just know
04:26I'm going to pay tax on if I go buy a big screen tv I'm going to pay tax on it and I can choose to
04:31buy that or not buy that but you just basically for subsisting and living on your own property
04:37on your own parcel of land your own home particularly people that that own it free
04:41and clear of any encumbrances you got to just keep writing a check to the government just for
04:48the privilege of using your own property and that's an anomaly that's not the way good tax policy
04:53should be it certainly undercuts the idea of private property that you own outside the reach
04:59of the government uh and you effectively are are wards of the local government because you're
05:04having to pay rent to them just to be able to exercise your basic rights to own and enjoy
05:08property and we don't do that on other things uh when I buy that big screen tv I'm not paying a
05:14tax on it every year no I put it in I plug it in hang it on the wall and I'm done paying tax on it
05:20once I bought the original thing so I think a lot of people are looking at it and say you know
05:24in Florida we have this great uh luxury of being able to offload tax burden to non-Floridians
05:32because people visit uh people invest here people live here part-time who aren't residents
05:38and and there are definitely ways that that you can structure a tax system to give the homeowners
05:43the relief our homesteaded homeowners particularly the relief uh and yet still raise revenue for core
05:51functions although I don't think you need to raise as much as they've raised because I think they're
05:55spending too much so there's a combination of these things so we have done in my time as governor
06:01record tax relief it used to be they do a million 100 million 200 300 million a year
06:08for the last I think four years we've done at least a billion dollars a year in tax relief two
06:13years we did 2.5 billion this most recent current fiscal year we've done 1.5 billion including for
06:20two years in a row toll relief I mean any of the commuters they get a 50 percent reduction in their
06:26toll so in your places like central Florida you know it's like everywhere you turn there's a toll
06:30I didn't put those tolls in by the way um but it's uh there's tolls everywhere and so ping ping
06:37ping if you ping enough then uh you know once we know you're a commuter you get a rebate at the end
06:43of the month and so we've done that for two years in a row and I would not want to give a rebate
06:48to Brazilian tourists that come like let them pay the tolls right we're giving the rebate to
06:53our Floridians who are working here and are commuting here so that was something that was
06:57really good we've also done back to school sales tax holidays for every year since I've been
07:02governor we instituted a disaster preparedness tax holiday there's actually two periods once
07:09before hurricane season once kind of in the middle of hurricane season where you can get all these
07:13supplies tax-free and a lot of Floridians have availed themselves of doing that we also instituted
07:20a freedom summer holiday for four years in a row and that exempts recreational items and outdoor
07:26activities for families and Floridians uh from from taxes who are looking to enjoy our great
07:32Florida summer and like look as someone that grew up here I know there's people that go elsewhere
07:36over the summer and I understand but um you know there's a lot to do over the summer here and people
07:40have a good time we also have done a skilled worker tools holiday which exempts tools and
07:46equipment used by skilled trade workers but also just you know families if you you want to have
07:51this around your house you can do it uh for that we've done a gas tax holiday in 2022 when gas tax
07:58is spiked we are also proposing the permanent relief of the business rent tax that was something
08:05that we've reduced significantly we're the only state in the country that taxes this I think it
08:10would be good for our economy I think it would be good particularly for small businesses we've also
08:15proposed tax holidays for second amendment sales between Memorial Day and 4th of July
08:21uh there's you know we got a lot of people buying the ammunition whatever you get it tax-free
08:26also a two-month boating boating fuel tax holiday that'll save Floridians 27 million dollars by
08:33reducing the motor fuel taxes levied on uh boating fuel uh we also will um you know work on other
08:42things and we've done a lot like for now all baby items are permanently tax-free from sales tax in
08:48Florida we did that a couple years ago and so we've never done more than what we've done since
08:57I've become not even close uh in terms of the numbers when you look at the tax relief and so
09:03we want to be as bold as we can be but I also have a reality that you know you have to get
09:09these things passed by the legislature you got to convince them that this is something that that
09:13you want to do and uh if that's kind of the the range that we've been in on the high end already
09:18you know what are the possibilities well as it turns out um the house of representatives
09:24leadership uh produced a proposal uh to dedicate five billion dollars uh to tax relief now they
09:31propose to reduce the state sales tax uh by three quarters of a penny and you know the issue with
09:38that is people one are not clamoring for for sales tax relief they're clamoring for property
09:43tax relief so there's no property tax relief in that proposal but it also allows relief for
09:50foreigners it allows relief for visitors and part-time residents I think the tax relief
09:56needs to be focused on Floridians we need a Florida first tax package and so I very much
10:03appreciate uh those folks in the house that set that five billion dollar target that'll be more
10:09than we've ever done uh by a country mile and if that is something that's in the ball game if
10:14that's something that they're willing to discuss uh we'll accept that but we'll come with the
10:19proposal to focus that five billion on reducing property taxes for people in Florida we have a
10:25chance I know we want to get on the ballot but we have a chance to do this this year so this would
10:30be kind of a opening salvo to what the main event would be in November of 2026 so uh with that five
10:38billion I'm proposing that the legislature direct that to immediate relief for all Florida homestead
10:46owners and if we do that we would end up with about one thousand dollars in property tax cut
10:53for every homesteaded Floridian and that will make a big big difference
11:01and part of the reason we're able to do this is although property taxes are local there is a
11:07portion of that that is required local effort for state for schools we have a massive surplus
11:14we can cover that through our normal budget reserves we don't need to have people paying
11:20property taxes this year on that specific line item so we would roll that back to zero we'd also
11:26roll back some of the local lines and issue a rebate and so that's how you end up getting to
11:31the thousand dollar uh per per resident or homesteaded property and look I mean I know
11:37we have people that have investment properties I'd rather focus it on the homesteaded Floridians
11:43and the Florida residents so that's where it'll be and that's how you get to a number that's
11:47pretty significant uh you know if you were to do this rollback with the normal range where you
11:53dedicate 250 million or whatever 300 million it would be very very modest I don't know that it
11:58would pack much of a punch but if you're going to go up to five billion you have a chance to
12:01really pack a punch and so for some for middle class a thousand dollar tax rebate you know that
12:08that's a substantial portion of their of their property taxes I know some of the wealthier folks
12:12that's that may not be quite as much but focusing on the the middle middle class folks this is going
12:17to be a really really big deal uh and again we think it'll be likely about a thousand dollars
12:23uh per homesteaded property now I think most you guys in the realtors know better than ever how
12:27this process works and the notices and all that so this would be something that we would see
12:32uh percolate uh throughout throughout the year and end up uh with end of the year trim notices
12:38but I think it's something that would be really really meaningful and if it's passed into law
12:41now people would know that this is coming down the pike very very soon um and so but anything
12:48that we're rolling back we do have the funding to be able to backfill so don't let me tell you
12:53oh they're taken from school now we'll fund that uh we have a big surplus we have uh we've
12:58quadrupled the rainy day fund since I've been governor just over the last six years we've paid
13:02off 41 of our state's debt since I've been we're in good shape and we'll be able to make it work
13:07and we want to we want to use that
13:13now ultimately as I said this is just the opening salvo uh we want to have a constitutional
13:20amendment on property taxes and that's going to require a lot of effort it's going to require us
13:26to do the doge through the balance of this year so that the voters see that this can actually be
13:32done and that they have an ability to both shrink their own budgets but also shift tax burdens to
13:38our tourists and our and our non-Floridians and I could tell you it's like people say oh people
13:42aren't going to come to Florida for this reason this reason it's like you know they said the
13:45Canadians weren't going to come and I'm with my kids you know we were down um at spring break
13:51and we're at Legoland and all these people coming up to me for pictures which is fine
13:55I normally do that and I'd say like 80 percent of them were Canadians and I'm like I thought
14:01you guys weren't coming to Florida anyway oh no we love Florida no so we're going to continue to be
14:06we're going to continue to be a destination um and we are excited about doing that now
14:12we are a low tax state we have the second lowest per capita state taxes in the entire country of
14:21course we have no income tax and even though we rely on sales tax our sales tax is basically
14:26middle of the pack you know California they have this really stiff income tax uh but they also have
14:32the highest sales tax they have an eight percent sales tax statewide it's higher in a lot of
14:36localities so so we've done a good job on that and the property taxes are are basically local
14:43but we rank middle of the pack on property tax rates throughout the country I don't think that's
14:49good enough I think we have an opportunity particularly given that we have uh we draw a
14:53lot of people to really really make an impact on property taxes man I'll tell you first of all
14:59the realtors I mean you guys would you would boom like never before I mean are you kidding me this
15:04would be really good but but part of what's happened right now we're not seeing the same
15:09amount of sales partially because of interest rates but partially because of the property taxes
15:14who wants to move from uh Tampa to Jacksonville if you're going to end up with a house that's
15:20going to have a much higher tax basis and then you're going to have to fork overall so so people
15:24are locked into lower interest rates lower property tax it still goes up with Homestead but not as
15:30much as it would and and that's really uh I think inhibited the market I think you would see the
15:36market respond very positively to this so that's the main event that's what we're going to be
15:40looking to do in November of 2026 and look when you're in a position to be able to make a difference
15:49listen to folks what what are the concerns what would make it easier there's certain things that
15:53if I could snap my finger I would do you know we don't have control over everything as state
15:57government I mean there's a a lot that goes on we have a national economy we have national policy
16:01we have all this other stuff but the one thing that we as Floridians through the political
16:07process can control is the tax we can control that uh we can we can go to the amendment and
16:13we can do property taxes that way you know we can cut taxes on other taxes in Tallahassee there's
16:19things you can do we're in total control of that that's not market-based it's not because of what's
16:24going on in Washington it's not because of what's going on in the private sector we control that
16:29and so if people need relief we're in good fiscal shape we have the ability to provide relief
16:34we have a responsibility to get it done so I'm excited to be able to make this proposal
16:38I wasn't sure that something like this would be possible but you know if you if you up the ante
16:43we're going to be there to call that so I want to thank everyone for being here