TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Would you rather save about a cent on every dollar you spend or get a roughly $1,000 check to offset your property taxes?
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The battle over how to cut taxes for everyday Floridians continues to heat up in the State Capitol, as three top state leaders are all expressing different views about how to best do it, or whether it can be done at all. However, the main dispute is between the governor and the House Speaker.
Governor Ron DeSantis started the conversation by initially calling for an end to property taxes heading into the session before the House Speaker countered with a plan to reduce state sales tax from 6 percent to 5.25 percent.
Soon after, the Governor called for property tax rebates of roughly $1,000 for homeowners, but the Senate President has now cast doubt on any major permanent tax cuts altogether.
Both the House Speaker’s sales tax reduction pitch and the Governor’s property tax rebate plan would total roughly $5 billion in savings for Floridians. Gov. DeSantis criticized the sales tax proposal as a tax cut for tourists Tuesday morning.
“I don’t want to reduce taxes on Canadian or Brazilian tourists. I’d rather them pay more and us pay less,” said DeSantis.
In recent weeks House Speaker Daniel Perez (R-Miami) has said he supports the discussion around eliminating property taxes, as the Governor initially proposed, but Perez noted it would take a constitutional amendment, so relief couldn’t come this year.
He has also questioned how a potential $55 billion hit to local budgets could impact critical services if property taxes were to be eliminated altogether.
“Does that mean you’re cutting into the K-12 budget? Does that mean you’re cutting fire? Are you cutting police? I don’t know the answer to all of that,” said Perez.
Senate President Ben Albritton (R-Bartow) chimed in on the debate this week, indicating he’d support a tax cut plan that is, “predominantly nonrecurring”. He expressed concerns about how permanent cuts could impact future budgets.
“Cutting taxes now does little good if they have to be raised two years from now to address budget shortfalls,” Albritton wrote in a memo distributed to Senators.
DeSantis’ rebate plan has been pitched as a temporary way of reducing property taxes now before voters possibly get a chance to eliminate them altogether on the 2026 ballot.
But so far, there’s been no movement in the legislature that would indicate voters will actually get that opportunity. Albritton said he would support a “compromise plan” that would ensure, “historic relief for Florida taxpayers while maintaining sound financial planning for the future”.
With the three competing philosophies, it’s unclear at this point exactly where lawmakers may land in the end.
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