FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called for a special session to tackle property taxes.
At a news conference held in Tampa on Wednesday morning, the governor proposes to raise the homestead exemption to $250,000, but he wants the Legislature to come up with a way to eventually raise it to $500,000.
This means Florida property owners would only pay taxes on what is left of the value of their homes, which would affect over 90% of homeowners in the state.
“Taxing something that you own repeatedly, which is a property tax, is the worst way to do taxation, because you have this, you pay all these taxes to acquire that property, and then year after year you’re just having to write a check just for the privilege of being able to maintain ownership of something that is supposedly yours,” said DeSantis.
The governor and state congress members have talked for a long time about either abolishing, reforming or tweaking property taxes. Now lawmakers will have a chance to tackle the issue starting Monday.
However, officials in cities, counties and other governmental bodies are questioning where they will get their revenue from as most of the time it comes from property taxes.
Pembroke Pines Mayor Angelo Castillo and Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis weighed in on the matter on Wednesday.
“What do we do about parks? What do we do about road construction? Road and bridge fund, what do we do about general administration of government? How does that get paid for?” said Castillo.
“Some cities rely almost 100% on property taxes, Fort Lauderdale is about 45%, but the point is that there’s a question of whether you want to reduce services or whether you want to increase taxes on other properties,” said Trantalis.
DeSantis has also proposed a trust fund to help the cities and the counties make their way through this, but there are still many details that need to be worked out.
Even if lawmakers pass the governor’s proposal, it will still need to go before the Florida voters, as it would be an amendment to the Florida Constitution and require voters pass it by 60% in November.
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