If Gov. Ron DeSantis’ push to end property taxes is successful, he says tourists can fill the gaps.
“If you ask people, would you rather not have to pay property taxes if that meant that Canadians and Brazilians may pay more hotel tax, I think 100% of Floridians would say that’s a trade that they would want to make,” DeSantis told Sean Hannity.
The Governor continues to make the case that property taxes are an undue burden on homeowners, arguing that they continue to go up, affecting everyone from senior citizens with fixed incomes to people relocating in the state for jobs. He has said previously that foreign tourists could pay more to replace the property tax, but funding formulas present a challenge.
One problem with this suggestion is that current tourism development taxes have statutory caps at 6% of transaction costs and firmly prescribed uses for the money, which include capital costs for facilities to draw in tourists, associated advertising campaigns and funds to bolster beaches.
Elimination of property taxes would leave holes in current budgets.
As the Florida Policy Institute noted in a criticism of the tax cut concept, property taxes make up roughly a sixth of county and city revenue and more than half of school district revenue. If the taxes were eliminated, it would leave a revenue hole of more than $2,000 for every man, woman and child in the state.
Meanwhile, the conservative James Madison Institute says Florida’s property tax burden is 25th in the country, which places it firmly in the middle of the back.
DeSantis and the Legislature differ on which tax cuts would benefit Floridians most. The House proposes a 0.75-point cut in the sales tax to 5.25%. DeSantis said he’d be willing to support that only if it went along with immediate property tax relief, suggesting that it could accompany a break that translates to “likely about $1,000 per homesteaded property.”
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