Ron DeSantis is seeking to complete his project of remaking Florida into a conservative paradise with perhaps his riskiest wager yet: a campaign to largely wipe out property taxes.
In his nearly seven years in office, the governor has ushered in a cultural revolution for schools, embraced abortion restrictions and thrown state resources behind President Donald Trump’s deportation drives, among other moves. Now, his tax-slashing effort is targeting levies that help pay for everything from education to police.
It’s a move that would cement DeSantis’ status as a GOP standard-bearer and bolster his record if he were to pursue national office again after his second and final term ends. Yet it also raises questions about how Florida’s government would pay for services residents rely on, particularly in a state with no income tax. In Miami-Dade County, for instance, property taxes account for more than a third of the operating budget.
To help address the challenge, DeSantis is taking another page from Trump politics — this time with his own version of the federal Department of Government Efficiency.
He and Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia are scrutinizing municipal finances and have started a “local government accountability tour” to identify potential waste. They have threatened local officials — many in majority Democratic districts — with fines, subpoenas, withholding of state funding and criminal investigations if they don’t go along with the probes.
Both have linked the DOGE effort to the push to eliminate or drastically cut property taxes, noting that the exact proposal is still a work in progress. They’ve made it clear that it’s tied to a distrust of local governments, accusing some of wasteful spending after a pandemic-era surge in real estate values bolstered their tax collections.
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“It’s a gusher of revenue that’s going into the coffers,” DeSantis said at a press conference on Tuesday. “That’s the purpose of these audits and overviews — to be able to show taxpayers” that spending cuts can be done.
No other state has fully abandoned property taxes. In Florida, such a move would take a constitutional amendment passed by 60% of voters. DeSantis and the GOP have pledged to get it on the ballot in 2026, just before the governor’s term runs out.
Florida’s property taxes are levied by local municipalities and school boards, for which they are often the single largest revenue source. Local governments are also responsible for assessing real estate values and setting millage rates that determine levies. A 1995 law from the state legislature limits the annual increase in the assessed value of a primary residence to no more than 3%.
While DeSantis has suggested an all-out elimination, he’s also floated an approach of killing the tax for primary residences, known as homesteaded properties. He’s equated the taxes to homeowners paying rent to the government.
Aubrey Jewett, a political scientist at the University of Central Florida, said that DeSantis is looking for another policy win to “add another feather in his cap” for Republican voters. The governor, who was an early candidate in the 2024 presidential election, would be a potential contender in 2028.