The Property Tax Proposal Floridians Will Vote For – Top 3 Takeaways – June 2nd, 2026
Takeaway #1: DeSantis’ stroke of genius
What’s happening in Tallahassee this week has the potential to not only to reshape homeownership in Florida permanently, but potentially across the country eventually. What happens in Florida, often doesn’t just stay in Florida, as many of our state’s biggest and brightest ideas are exported across the country. But doing big things is rarely an easy thing. The Revolutionary War was fought over parts of eight years. Similarly, it took The Apollo Program eight years to put men on the moon. It was twice that long, approximately 16 years, from the development of government internet applications, to the advent of the consumer internet with a World Wide Web. But the big thing Governor DeSantis is working to undo is something that’s been in place and ever growing for 188 years and counting. Property taxes imposed on you. The first record of property taxes being imposed in Florida dates back to 1838...that’s notable because Florida wasn’t yet even a state! That came in 1845. It’s safe to say that attempting to undo something that’s always been done is just about the hardest thing as a politician you can attempt to do. But what Governor DeSantis has done, both with the timing, and the approach to addressing the property tax burden just may be...
Takeaway #2: The way to get it done
As I mentioned in my initial analysis of Governor DeSantis’s Proposed Property Tax Elimination Plan last week... There are potential benefits for all property owners and two key dates that are in play with the proposal. The two key dates to know are January 1st of 2027 and January 1st of 2028. If the proposed amendment passes, the first round of property tax relief kicks in on January 1st of next year, tripling the property tax exemption from $50,000 to $150,000. Then one year later on January 1st of 2028 – the property tax exemption would rise by another $100,000 to a total of $250,000. At that point most homesteaded property owners in the state would be exempt from paying property taxes (approximately 60%). There’s also one other key cog that would kick in as of January of 2028. The homestead exemption amount would then be adjusted for inflation annually. But what if you own non-homesteaded properties? There is potentially a bit of a benefit in the new proposal for you too. Under current law, non-homesteaded property taxes may rise by up to 10% per year...and in recent years most business owners and second homeowners have been subjected to this. Should this amendment pass, it would cap the annual increase in non-school property taxes at 5%. But as for the notion of potential property tax elimination...that’s opaque within the proposal. As I noted from the legislation... the exact language in the bill is this: The legislature shall, by general law, prescribe a uniform procedure for counties, municipalities, and school districts, for their respective levies, to increase the amount of assessed valuation exempt from taxation under paragraph (1), up to all remaining assessed valuation. They shall do it! There’s no timeline or specifics tied to it. As I mentioned last week, on the one hand that might seem like a bit of a cop out. On the other hand, it may be a stroke of strategic genius. You may notice that the provision says by general law... This means a simple majority of the legislature, and the signature of the governor in the future could get that done if this passes. That might be much more viable than spelling out all of the details today and trying to get both 3/5’ths of the legislature to agree and 60% of voters in November. As new polling information of Floridians came out on Monday, it very much appears as though what DeSantis has done is what DeSantis needed to do to potentially...
Takeaway #3: Get this across the finish line
On Monday, at the onset of the state session, a Sachs Media survey of Florida’s voters was released. From the surveying... two things were clear 1) Almost all Floridians want legislators to “do something” to provide property tax relief 2) There’s otherwise not anywhere close to a 60% consensus on what to do. Here’s what that looks like. According to the survey, at least two-thirds of all voters want property tax relief! That includes 80% of Republicans and non-party affiliated voters and 66% of Democrats. Delivering meaningful property tax relief isn’t a partisan issue. Where there is meaningful disagreement, what that should be... The highest percentage of voters, 48% say we should permanently eliminate homesteaded property taxes, but that’s clearly well short of the 60% support that’s needed. The balance of voters, 32%, think we need relief, but that property taxes should be lowered but not completely eliminated. Only 20% of Florida’s voters say that the legislatures shouldn’t do anything to address lowering property taxes. If affordability is the biggest issue this election cycle and if 80% of Florida’s voters want the legislature to ‘do something’ to lower property taxes, what’s likely to happen if you’re in the legislature and you don’t get behind Governor DeSantis’s proposal to lower property taxes? Sure, all the bureaucrats running local taxing authorities who love taxing the roof over your head and spending every penny they get will treat you like a hero...but voters won’t. What DeSantis has done is to seemingly thread the needle to find a way to sell property tax reform to the masses to get the 60% a proposed amendment needs in November, while holding open the ability with the proposal to allow a simple majority of the legislature in the future to eliminate homesteaded property taxes if they choose to.