Gov. DeSantis expects Legislature to wrap overtime work this month. But property tax help is still a wild card

Gov. Ron DeSantis is being more precise on his timeline for the Legislature finalizing the budget, approving a new congressional map and agreeing to ballot language to allow voters to potentially phase out homestead property taxes.

Speaking in The Villages, DeSantis said “hopefully, by the end of April, all the work that the public expects from them will have been completed.”

The budget timing jibes with what legislative leaders have eyed to resolve the $1.4 billion divide between the House’s $113.6 billion budget and the Senate’s plan totaling $115 billion.

Senate President Ben Albritton said Senators would “return to Tallahassee for a Special Session on the budget … following the Easter and Passover holidays.” House Speaker Daniel Perez said he anticipated a mid-April reconvening.

DeSantis suggested he still isn’t bothering to talk to the House Speaker, with whom he has feuded for almost two years.

“We’ve been having discussions with the folks over in the Senate. I don’t know whether they have a broad outline of an agreement on the budget. My view on it is, guys, this ain’t rocket science. Like, you have what we’ve done in recent years. It’s worked well. The voters returned you to office in record numbers in ’22 and ’24 as a result of that. So stick with what works and let’s get the job done,” DeSantis said.

The Special Session on congressional redistricting is set for the week of April 20 even as incumbent congressional Republicans worry an aggressive map could put their seats in play.

Meanwhile, the property tax Special Session is still a somewhat more aspirational goal.

DeSantis said the latter “probably” gets done in April, but suggested it doesn’t matter if the deliberation on his plan, which still hasn’t been rolled out, is delayed further.

“You could do that really a lot later if you wanted to, but I think probably that’s when it’ll be. And that just means you guys vote in November. So whether you do it in today, the end of April, June, you’re voting in November, if that’s just the reality,” DeSantis said.

As time moves on, the proposal picks up more lawyerly nuance that complicates what was a seemingly simple call to action when it was first floated last year.

DeSantis has floated the idea of the state subsidizing the mere “budget dust” of what would have been property tax collections for 32 of the state’s 67 counties, an idea that incoming Speaker Sam Garrison says he opposes, saying that for him and presumably others in the House to support it, all counties must be treated equally.

He also has become more elusive on when his proposal would help homeowners, in another seeming nod to political reality.

“I think the question is timing. How quickly can you get to where your personal residence is excluded from property?” DeSantis said last week on “Hang out with Sean Hannity.”

Even as a concept, eliminating homestead property taxes wouldn’t pass at this point.

Recent polling from the University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Research Lab (PORL) found that among likely Midterm voters in the Sunshine State, 56% are for gradually eliminating taxes on homesteaded property over 10 years, not counting taxes for schools and emergency services. That falls below the 60% threshold necessary to approve an amendment.