Ron DeSantis says legislators not all on board with push to eliminate homestead property tax as he fleshes out plan

Ron DeSantis continues to discuss his long-pending proposal to eliminate homestead property taxes, and while he doesn’t think everyone in the House and Senate are on board, he’s still giving details of what can be expected when he finally calls a Special Session later this Spring.

DeSantis said Wednesday part of the delay stemmed from the need to “work through the House and Senate,” as he questioned legislators’ willingness to go to the mat for his last major push.

“Personally, I think a lot of these guys don’t really want to do anything on it. Or some of them, maybe I should say,” he said at West Palm Beach’s DeSantis Family Chapel.

The plan has been gestating for months, which DeSantis attributes to the “strategy involved.”

“We’ve been working on this for a long time,” DeSantis said. “Why would I produce something that is not ripe in terms of when we’re going to actually put it in front of the Legislature? I was born on a Tuesday, but not last Tuesday.”

DeSantis downplayed the impact of ending homestead property taxes, saying “70% of the revenue is commercial or non homestead residential properties. Snowbirds, foreigners, investment income.”

He also suggested that a staggered rollout may be the move.

“We would likely start at the bottom and then phase it in where you’re raising the exclusion until you get to elimination. While you’re doing that, and I’ve also said, I’m willing to provide funding for grants for the local governments to ease the transition,” DeSantis said.

He’s referred to the money for fiscally constrained counties as “budget dust,” saying that the state could shoulder the burden of ending homestead property taxes for 32 of the state’s 67 counties due to surpluses.

“But what’ll happen is, yeah, they’re going to lose some lose some of the revenue from the homestead as we do that. I’ll provide some grants to be able to help with that transition to whatever. But the non-homestead and all that, those valuations have gone up. They’re going to continue to see that grow even if they don’t raise the millage. So you’re going to end up in a pretty similar spot, you know, within a few years.”