Florida Lawmakers Mull Eliminating Property Tax as Levies Climb Along With Home Prices

With home values soaring, sending tax bills to the moon, Florida lawmakers are exploring major property tax reforms—including doing away with the tax altogether.Dozens of bills have been filed in the state legislature to address the growing crisis, ranging from minor exemptions to ambitious attempts to completely eliminate the property tax. While killing the tax remains unlikely—it would require a constitutional amendment—the push for reform reflects growing dissatisfaction among homeowners. “People are getting crushed not just by home insurance but by property taxes,” Republican state senator Jonathan Martin, who has sponsored a bill that would mandate a study exploring property-tax elimination, told The Wall Street Journal. “That American dream in Florida is taking five figures a year in local taxes.”Governor DeSantis has voiced support for providing property tax relief, calling for innovative solutions while ruling out increases to state taxes. In his State of the State address earlier this month, Mr. DeSantis called the state’s homestead exemption—which applies to a homeowner’s primary residence—”not adequate” to protect homeowners and expressed support for putting a referendum on the 2026 ballot to cut the property tax.“Property taxes are local, not state,” Mr. DeSantis said in a recent social media post. “So we’d need to do a constitutional amendment (requires 60% of voters to approve) to eliminate them (which I would support) or even to reform/lower them. We should put the boldest amendment on the ballot that has a chance of getting that 60%. I agree that taxing land/property is the more oppressive and ineffective form of taxation.”Florida has no personal income tax so relies heavily on property taxes, which fund essential services such as schools, police departments, and parks. Florida’s tax on homes “makes up 18 percent of county revenue, 17 percent of municipal revenue, and 50 to 60 percent of school district revenue,” according to the Florida Policy Institute.Currently, every U.S. state has property taxes, usually authorized by the state government, with rates set and money collected at the city or county level. As property values have soared in the United States—increasing by 27 percent between January 2020 and July 2024, according to the Tax Foundation—other states besides Florida also are rethinking their property tax systems. Wyoming, Kansas, and Montana are exploring ways to limit property taxes amid a wave of taxpayer backlash, while voters in North Dakota recently rejected a measure to eliminate property taxes.Among the measures proposed in the Florida legislature this year is one that would increase exemptions, reducing the taxable value of properties. For instance, adjustments approved last year to the homestead exemption would provide relief by factoring inflation into the exemption threshold.Another proposal before the legislature calls for an amendment to the state constitution to create a $100,000 exemption from the assessed value of real property for all levies.“Florida’s population has been continuously overburdened by constant increases in property taxes throughout the past several years. The property tax increases are based, unfairly, on unrealized gains for the paper value of our homes,” state representative Ryan Chamberlin said in his joint resolution.“In Florida we can never truly own a home while paying property taxes,” he wrote. “It is my hope that with this property tax exemption, we can start the process of [reining in] our property taxes and begin exploring alternative options to how our State collects this revenue.”Yet another proposal calls for a constitutional amendment to revise how properties are assessed for tax purposes. Under the amendment, homestead properties would be “assessed at the most recent purchase price, or, in the case of new construction, the cost of construction.”Some Republicans doubt the efficacy of killing the tax altogether. “The question is what will replace personal property taxes,” a state senator, Don Gaetz, told The Journal. “I have not seen any proposal that eliminates property taxes, replaces them with a fairer or better tax and ensures that local governments will still have the funds to operate efficiently.”Whatever happens, Mr. DeSantis says something must be done. “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,” he said last month.

Florida Lawmakers Mull Eliminating Property Tax as Levies Climb Along With Home Prices

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