What Florida’s Property Tax Plan Has in Common with the Federal Government Shutdown – Top 3 Takeaways, October 15th, 2025
Takeaway #1: Budget dust
In fewer than three months, January 9th, we’ll have a deadline that could forever change the trajectory of what you pay for property in Florida. It’s the day that “All drafts of general bills, memorials, and joint resolutions, including drafts for companion bills, must be approved to file in final form”, in advance of the start of the state’s legislative session (which kicks off January 13th). That means that in a few months we’ll begin to see how serious the state legislature is about potentially putting an end to homesteaded property taxes in this state, based upon what’s proposed as a constitutional amendment for voters to consider in November (should it clear the legislature). One thing is clear, Governor DeSantis means business. Recently the governor said that if the legislature didn’t deliver a proposed amendment to cut property taxes in the regular session, that he’d call a special session next summer just prior to the elections when he feels that many reluctant politicians might feel the heat from voters of their potential inaction. Most recently, the governor said this: “I’m not going to let that keep us from doing property tax relief”. The “that” he was referring to was allowing concerns about low tourism or low revenue counties and municipalities standing in the way of potentially eliminating homesteaded property taxes. As DeSantis said when asked about those concerns: I can fund all that. I can take all 32 fiscally constrained counties, I could fund 100% of tax revenue that would be derived from a homestead Florida residence, property taxes. And it’s like budget dust for us. We’ve got a massive surplus. So we can do that and we will do that. As I’ve illustrated previously, eliminating homesteaded property taxes isn’t, in fact, as difficult to do as it may seem. For example, inflation adjusted dollars in Palm Beach County. If the county simply ran itself as it did in 2019 – pre-pandemic, it could do so without any homesteaded property taxes. The fact of the matter is that most local governments became bloated with federal COVID money, rising property values and strong local economies. That’s a big part of what Florida’s DOGE has set out to do. Illustrate the frivolousness with which many local governments have been operating as they decry the idea of ending or even meaningfully reducing property taxes on their constituents.
Takeaway #2: Here’s what this could mean to you...
The average Florida homeowner will live here for a total of 35 years. Last week, after having been inspired by my research for a Q&A on financial literacy and credit scores, I decided to paint the picture of what the impact on the average Floridian would be with the elimination of property taxes. Aside from truly owning your home, because a local government wouldn’t be able to seize it from you for not paying annual taxes to keep it, the average resident of Florida $105,000. That’s a lot of dough, but that’s the statewide average. Closer to home the numbers are much higher...consider this: Palm Beach County residents would save $141,750 in today’s dollars, $176,750 in Martin County, $183,750 in Indian River County and $266,000 in St. Lucie. During the partial government shutdown, I’ve posed the question about whether you’ve noticed the impact on your daily life. Have you? And yet 34% of the federal government has been offline for over two weeks. As I illustrated, if we permanently cut 34% of the federal government, we’d go from having nearly $2 trillion deficits to having $300 billion budget surpluses. So, consider this. If 34% of the federal government could go away without a meaningful impact for just about anyone in society, is there really much doubt that we could manage with an average of 15% less local government? And in the event that critical needs couldn’t be met, that the state step in and fund those needs? As I stated yesterday: It was a choice for the federal government to become ridiculously bloated and run multitrillion dollar budget deficits that lead to higher inflation and interest rates. It’s a choice to keep it bloated and to deal with higher than needed inflation, interest rates and taxes. A permanent end to over a third of the federal government would be a massive problem solved and far greater quality of life for all but the directly impacted federal government employees. So, think about that in the context of...
Takeaway #3: The opportunity we’re talking about within our state
Would you rather save 141 thousand plus dollars and truly own your home with your local government(s) operating at the size and efficiency of 2019, or would you rather pay $141k, and not truly own your home, and have your local government(s) operating as they do today? And btw, would you even notice if your local government operated as it did in 2019? Has your local government done anything worth at least $141 thousand dollars for you since 2019? Just as it was a choice to create a bloated federal government with high deficits, inflation and taxes. It’s a choice to keep bloated local governments with high property taxes. The big difference between the federal example currently in play, and the potential for what we’re talking about in our state, is that it’s entirely within our control as to if we do this. So, what do you choose? Sign me up for DeSantis’s plan to end homesteaded property taxes and to sprinkle some budget dust. How about you?