Rick Scott is eager for Ron DeSantis to finally reveal what his plan is to eliminate homestead property taxes. He also has questions about how the state will make up the lost revenue without scuttling essential services.
“I’d love to find out how you can get rid of property taxes. States are generally funded one of three ways: income, property or sales tax. So we don’t have a personal income tax in Florida. And we do need revenues to pay for our schools, transportation, environment, things like that,” Scott said Tuesday on WGCU.
“So I know the Governor has proposed and said he’d like to see property taxes come down. I’ve not seen a proposal. I’d love to see a proposal, because I don’t want another tax to go up, and I want to make sure we have all the money we need to make sure our kids get a great education, make sure we have money for our roads, make sure we have money for the environment.” the Senator from Naples added.
Scott, who served two terms as Governor himself, has raised questions before, saying the state is already “efficient” and questioning what is left to cut that wouldn’t adversely affect quality of life.
DeSantis continues to pitch the concept of a plan, but details are elusive. His team is “running studies” on what could be, potentially including a “phased” approach.
Potential opposition preoccupies the current Governor, including from so-called “entrenched interests” ranging from unions to businesses that “like the predictability of what they have now.”
Though a formal plan isn’t forthcoming until legislators finally pass a state budget. DeSantis has attempted to gear up grassroots support, including with a roundtable this week in Melbourne.
He promised no new taxes would be passed to offset lost revenue from homestead tax elimination, and argued that homestead taxes are just 30% of property tax collections.
He panned the progressive nature of property tax, arguing it is unfair that someone in a more expensive house has to pay more, since they are using the same local services as someone in a less valuable home.
He also said taxes on “snowbirds” and other foreigners would allow local governments to continue to provide core services while cutting “extraneous expenses,” whatever those are.
Meanwhile, businesses would not be taxed more, via increased valuations, to offset the savings for homesteaders.
DeSantis said rural governments would be floated by the state budget for a period of time under this proposal. The state’s “big surplus” would help socialize the costs for rural administration at the expense of suburban and urban counties even as their tax collections are cut.
He also suggested new arrivals should have to pay property tax “for a period of time.”
The Legislature will have to vote to put this on the November ballot with 60% support in both the House and the Senate, and the proposal won’t become part of the constitution without 60% of the vote in the General Election.
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