DeSantis Wants a Single Property Tax Amendment
Disses Legislators' Solutions as 'Milquetoast'
The author has covered politics and government in Florida for more than two decades. He now writes for the non-profit Florida Phoenix, which shared this story with us.
By MITCH PERRY
Gov. Ron DeSantis continued to jab at House Republicans over property taxes on Wednesday and insisted that voters should be given just one proposed constitutional amendment to overhaul the system instead of multiple proposals.
House Speaker Daniel Perez earlier this month said that voters should decide what type of property tax cuts should be enacted and rolled out seven potential amendments that could be placed on the 2026 ballot.
But this is a no-go with DeSantis who has suggested that Perez is doing this to undermine any effort to cut property taxes.
“It’s got to be very clearly written and give people a chance to vote for it,” he said while speaking on the University of South Florida campus in Tampa. “What you don’t do is put five [constitutional amendments] on there…because they’re going to be written in ways that are not going to be clear—and so there’s going to create confusion on the ballot.”
The governor has made clear for months that he wants to provide property tax relief for those with homestead properties and that can only be achieved by placing such a measure on the ballot via a constitutional amendment. The most likely way that will happen is by having the Legislature create and approve a proposal that gets three-fifths support from both the House and Senate to be placed on the November 2026 ballot. Then 60 percent of the public must vote for it to become law.
This marks the second time that DeSantis has zinged House Republicans. After they offered seven separate proposed constitutional amendments to reduce property taxes earlier this month, DeSantis dismissed their offers as “not serious.” He doubled down on those comments on Wednesday.
‘Half Measures’
“Just understand what they’re trying to do in the Florida House—they put out a bunch of proposals,” he said. “They’re all milquetoast. There’s not one proposal that would get people excited about. Not one. So they’re total half measures. Which is not what people are asking for. People want to be bold. So just right there’s a problem. But they say, ‘No, we’re just going to put it all out to let the people decide. We’ll put five on the ballot and let the people decide.’ First of all, the Senate’s not going to do that. But if that were to be done, that is a way to kill any type of getting property tax reform. Because different voters are going to read different things and none of them are going to end up getting 60 percent”
One big potential problem for DeSantis, however, is that he has no veto power over what the Legislature eventually draws up and places on the ballot.
Perez responded to DeSantis’ initial criticisms of the House’s proposals last week by pointing out that the governor has not yet released his own proposal to address the issue. He added that he had personally reached out to the governor to share the House’s offers and had never heard back.
(One Democrat, Sen. Mack Bernard from Palm Beach County, filed four proposed constitutional amendments on property taxes as well last week).
DeSantis confirmed at the press conference that he hasn’t spoken with Perez regarding property taxes, and didn’t sound like he intended to anytime soon.
The pair began feuding over various issues during the 2025 legislative session. When DeSantis first brought up the issue of providing property tax relief during the legislative session earlier this year, Perez countered by proposing a $5 billion plan to reduce sales taxes in Florida, which the governor derided again on Wednesday as “a tax cut for tourists and Canadians.”
Shortly after this story was published, Speaker Perez responded to the governor’s comments.
“The governor’s comments can only be interpreted in two ways,” Perez said in a statement sent to the Phoenix. “Either he’s being small and petty, or he has just revealed something significant today about his mysterious property tax plan. The House has proposed eliminating all non-school homestead property taxes. The Governor weirdly called that ‘milquetoast.’ That can only mean the Governor has just announced that he will be proposing to abolish all property taxes including school taxes. I look forward to seeing the Governor’s proposed budget where he makes up for the $21 billion for schools that he plans to cut.”
DeSantis said that with the 2026 election still a year away, there was no urgency to release his own proposed amendment right now, but said that he was working “with folks” to get the language right so that it can ultimately get the support it needs to pass.
60 Percent Approval
Public opinion polls show Floridians are generally supportive of eliminating or reducing property taxes. A University of North Florida Public Opinion Research Lab survey released on Tuesday of 728 likely voters showed 49 percent of Floridians supporting the elimination of property taxes for homeowners, with 43 percent against. While the survey shows a plurality of voters support the idea, it’s far from the 60 percent support required for passage.
DeSantis emphasized that whatever proposed constitutional amendment on property taxes appears on the ballot it must be clear and concisely written. The governor claimed that two constitutional amendments passed by the Legislature that appeared on the 2024 ballot failed because they were poorly written: Amendment 1 to make school board races partisan, and Amendment to repeal the state’s public campaign financing programs for statewide candidates.
Critics say whatever is ultimately proposed regarding a significant reduction if not outright repeal of property taxes on homestead properties will result in a significant cost shift—whether in taxes, fees or inadequate services. “That’s a reality if we’re going to be clear about what this does,” Florida Policy Institute director of research Esteban Leonardo Santis said Wednesday during an online discussion on property taxes.
“Ultimately if we were to just eliminate property taxes—non-school property taxes for homesteads—that would cost $11 billion statewide,” DeSantis added. “This would be $7.8 billion for counties. It would also be $3 billion for municipalities.”
WIsh we could also ban all the useless money-making red light cameras.
Bravo to our Governor. These housing taxes/propery should have have NEVER even been allowed to start. So much tax money is wasted.