Published on March 6, 2025 at 12:45 pm
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Republican lawmakers and Gov. Ron DeSantis have been pushing for a study on eliminating property taxes in Florida. But some lawmakers are concerned about how local governments will make up the lost revenue.
During a Senate Finance and Tax meeting Wednesday, Naples Republican Sen. Kathleen Passidomo said she wants to bring tax relief to property owners but doesn’t belief quick actions should be taken to abolish property tax.
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“I’m pretty uncomfortable with some of these broad, sweeping statements about eliminating property taxes without, and I think we should caution our members as to the outcomes if we just do that, and so the sooner we do that, the better it is for our members so they don’t go down a down a rabbit hole,” she said.
Pensacola Republican Sen. Don Gaetz is curious about how local governments would make up about $50 billion in lost annual revenue.
“So sometimes it’s good to know not only how much money is involved if you reduce a tax but you know what’s it going to take using other tax sources to address the revenue issue,” he said.
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A report from the left-leaning think tank Florida Policy Institute suggests Florida would have to do a combination of dramatically increasing sales tax and cutting local expenditures like schools and law enforcement to make up for abolishing property taxes.
The value of all the property in Florida has risen tremendously since 2021, from about $3.1 trillion to $4.9 trillion last year. So, the amount of tax money local governments have collected has risen too. But that increase hasn’t been felt as harshly by people who just own their primary home.
In Florida, homeowners get tax exemptions on about $50,000 of the first $75,000 of their primary home’s value. It’s called a homestead exemption. It doesn’t apply to second homes, or vacation homes.
There are additional exemptions for seniors, veterans and the disabled. Another protection, called “Save Our Homes,” caps property tax increases on homesteaded properties to 3% each year. That means second homes, rental properties and business properties have seen their tax bills increase quicker than primary residences.
DeSantis has been one of the strongest advocates in the state for abolishing the tax. He said Tuesday that he doesn’t believe existing homestead protections are doing enough to protect homeowners from skyrocketing property values.
“They bought a house 10 years ago, and now someone’s telling you it’s worth a million dollars, and they’ve got a pony up more money to the government. Our homestead exemption is not adequate. It is not adequate to protect taxpayers against that. So people are really getting pinched, and that’s a huge, huge problem,” he said.
One proposal this session would commission a study to evaluate the effects of removing property taxes. Other lawmakers are pursuing legislation to provide more immediate relief, but some of those proposals would bring the most relief to non-homesteaded properties.
State Rep. Ryan Chamberlin wants to phase out property tax all together over the next seven or eight years. He has filed a resolution that would put up a ballot initiative in 2026 that would provide a $100,000 tax exemption on all properties, not just homesteads. That means properties like second homes, businesses and rentals would receive larger reductions in their tax bills than homesteaded properties.
“If you can’t pay property taxes on your home, family farm or Small Business Warehouse, your property will be seized by the state and given to someone else,” he said. “Our seniors, some of them who have paid on their property for 30, 40, and even 50 years, still don’t own it. This isn’t tax. This is slavery.”
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