Florida senator files proposal to study possibility of eliminating property taxes

A Senate Republican on Tuesday filed a proposal that would lead to studying the possibility of eliminating property taxes in Florida.

Sen. Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers, filed the bill (SB 852) for consideration during the legislative session that will start March 4.

Property taxes have traditionally played a major role in funding Florida schools and local governments. Martin’s bill would direct the Legislature’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research to “conduct a study to establish a framework to eliminate property taxes … and to replace property tax revenues through budget reductions, sales-based consumption taxes and locally determined consumption taxes authorized by the Legislature.”

Among other things, the analysis would have to look at the effect of eliminating property taxes on “public services, including education, infrastructure and emergency services” and evaluate whether a shift to “consumption-based taxes would make Florida more attractive to businesses compared to other states.”

Last week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis expressed being in favor of abolishing property taxes in the state, saying he'd support an amendment to do just that.

DeSantis made his views known in a series of posts on X on Feb. 13 that began with a post from Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy about introducing a bill to repeal gas can regulations.

"Only the government could mess up a gas can. Let's fix it. #GasCanFreedom," Roy wrote.

The post drew a response from Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis.

"'The federal government does not need to be involved in every aspect of our lives, and we never needed them involved in our gas cans.' - 💯 @chiproytx," she posted.

Husband Ron DeSantis replied "True…" before another user replied with a post about taxes.

"Property Taxes should not be charged based on assumed value for new construction homes. I built my house affordably I should have affordable property taxes to match," the user wrote, to which Ron DeSantis replied, "I agree!"

"@GovRonDeSantis, we really need to abolish property taxes here in Florida. What do we need to do to make this happen?" another user asked.

"Property taxes are local, not state. So we’d need to do a constitutional amendment (requires 60% of voters to approve) to eliminate them (which I would support) or even to reform/lower them…" the governor replied. "We should put the boldest amendment on the ballot that has a chance of getting that 60%… I agree that taxing land/property is the more oppressive and ineffective form of taxation…"

Money from property taxes funds schools, pays for police and fire protection, maintains roads, and funds other services like parks. The governor's posts didn't say how the state might fill the gap from the loss of property tax funds.

Florida Speaker of the House Danny Perez told NBC6 on Wednesday that less taxes are better for all Floridians.

"Property taxes fund the majority of our K-12 education system, property taxes fund a majority of our local government’s budget," he said. "I haven’t had that conversation with the governor yet, of course, I'm always open to it."

Florida has long been considered a tax-friendly state.

The Sunshine State is one of nine in the U.S. that currently have no state income tax. Florida generates money to make up for it through sales taxes, corporate incomes taxes and other methods.

"If we are going to eliminate property taxes, I want to kind of understand what his plan is to make sure that that gap that funds our next generation of Floridian leaders is filled properly and sufficiently," Perez said.