Governor Ron DeSantis wants to give Floridians property tax relief. The outgoing governor has made the amendment the signature effort of his months in office, but the fate of that effort is in the hands of Florida voters this fall.
Matthew Putnam, a policy manager at National Taxpayers Union Foundation, recently joined The Drew Mariani Show to discuss the proposed amendment. For a while, Putnam told Drew, DeSantis was pushing for a “complete elimination of property tax.” The two-term governor said that would give Floridians relief from the “high cost of living.” That, however, would push localities to hike the sales tax “up to 32% in Glades County just to make up that revenue,” Putnam said.
Instead, the amendment would “increase the homestead tax exemption for non-school taxes to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028, with the amount indexed to inflation starting in 2029.” The proposed amendment also does away with a key provision of Gov. DeSantis’ original proposal: a trust fund to help restore lost revenues.
Some worry that the amendment will disproportionately hurt smaller cities and villages. “Our tax base is going to be dramatically impacted by this change,” Jerry Greenberg, a councilmember of the small 19,000-person Village of Pinecrest told CBS. According to Greenberg, single-family home taxes account for “half of Pinecrest’s general fund.”
Other Models of Taxation
Putnam told Drew that other states, like Utah, provide a model that addresses property tax concerns. The Beehive State has had a 40-year piece of legislation called “Truth in Taxation,” Putnam said. The program “keeps your taxes pretty stable regardless of how much inflation or rising property assessments are occurring.”
According to Putnam, Utah property taxes stay stable unless local governments hold public meetings and hold a public vote on the increases. That way, the local government “can be held accountable if they do decide to increase those taxes.”
Similar laws have passed in Kansas and Nebraska, where they have also been successful, Putnam said.
The Catholic Church’s Teaching
The Church teaches both that individuals have the right to private property and that there should be a “reasonable and fair application of taxes.”
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