Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday urged the Florida Legislature to cut property taxes instead of following through with Speaker Danny Perez's new plan to save Floridians $5 billion by reducing the state sales tax.
Speaking at a press conference in Orlando, DeSantis said that money should go toward tamping down the state's sky-high property taxes instead of slashing costs for "tourists" and "foreigners." This proposal is the latest step in DeSantis's demands for stabilized property costs and comes days after Speaker Perez, a Republican known to clash with the governor, suddenly unveiled his plan to permanently sink the state sales tax from 6% to 5.25%.
"People are not clamoring for sales tax relief, they're clamoring for property tax relief," DeSantis said Monday. "There's no property tax relief in [Perez's] proposal, but it also allows relief for foreigners. It allows relief for visitors and part-time residents. I think that tax relief needs to be focused on Floridians."
The governor continued, pointing out that sales tax is paid by residents and visitors, while property tax is Floridian-exclusive. While he wouldn't veto Perez's plan if it passes the legislature, he hopes lawmakers will address property tax first and then "do sales tax on top of that."
"If you up the ante, we're going to be there to call that," he added.
Under his proposal, every Floridian with a homestead would have an estimated $1,000 knocked off their property tax bill. The $5 billion would not be stripped from local governments, DeSantis continued, but would come out of the state's budget reserves. This differs from Perez's plan to save Floridians an estimated $5 billion by permanently capping the state sales tax at 5.25% instead of 6%.
According to Housingwire.com, the median property tax in Florida increased 47.5% between 2019 and 2024, with South Florida counties like Miami-Dade and Broward seeing nearly 57% increases.
DeSantis called his plan to direct the $5 billion toward property tax relief the "opening salvo" in his hopes to fully eliminate the tax, levied by local governments, which goes toward funding public schools and the salaries of public workers. This would require a constitutional amendment—one that the governor hopes will be on the 2026 ballot.
