Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gave his support for the elimination of state property taxes, recommending that the idea be put before voters.
DeSantis made his position known through a response to an X user who stated, “Property taxes should not be charged based on assumed value for new construction homes.” DeSanti responded “I agree!” and then answered another X user who asked what the state needed to do to eliminate property taxes.
“Property taxes are local, not state,” DeSantis wrote in his X response. “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.”
DeSantis added, “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.”
Photo courtesy Gage Skidmore / Flickr Creative Commons
Totally agree. Property tax needs to be eliminated.
I agree about property taxes. I saw an old debate between Kennedy and Nixon and Kennedy wanted the Fed to pay for school buildings and the states could pay for teachers and figure out the curriculum. I think that might work, so poor school districts could have equal buildings. But officials need to cut spending. It is like buying a car that you never get to payoff. Never ending debt.
How do they propose to pay for road and infrastructure improvements, schoolss,police and fire protection, without those funds? Homeowners directly benefit from all of those services. I agree taxes are obscene in most cases, and getting government spending under control is the answer.
One way is by eliminating the Department of Education. More money will go directly to states,no or less money needed for schools to be paid from property taxes.
I own vacant 3 lots, in an undeveloped housing plat with no roads to speak of other than a few 2 tracks. I pay more for those three lots with little to no infrastructure than I do for a 120 ACRES parcel that has public rds and utilities attached to it in MI…crazy!
Grand Day!
When will this be on the ballot to vote?
States that do not have property taxes obtain their funds from other sources, taxes on sold items, taxes on income, business taxes, etc. You have to examine the combination of all taxes that a state collects, and any local taxes too, and then compare that to your person situation to see how those taxes will affect you because some states may work better for you, other states not.
California has high property taxes, but lower taxes in other areas. Some people have fled California to Oregon only to find that lower property taxes in Oregon did not help because other taxes were far higher, so they moved back to California (pretty costly to move back and forth), and with rising home prices, some were stuck because they could not afford to move back to CA., so they regretted moving. Some were glad they moved to Idaho or Montana, but they complain about the bitter cold. Some who moved to Texas or Florida find out that they hate the flat landscapes, heat and humidity, So before you sell your home, it seems wise to do a long term visit to the state of your interest and rent out your home before you commit to a big decision that you may not be able to undo.
Property Taxes
In my view, I do not like California’s Prop 13. It was my first election, and I voted NO on that popular proposition which is valued by so many people like a religion, but it has long been harming many people in a grossly unfair way.
I’m surprised that lawsuits have not been filed based on Prop 13 and its discriminatory aspects. Actually, MOST tax laws (nationwide) are discriminatory against legally protected classes, with single people getting slammed much harder than married and married with children, thus family status discrimination.
In CA., if you bought a home before the huge price increases over the past 10 years, your property taxes are far lower than if you buy a nearly identical home today in the same neighborhood due to Prop 13. How is that fair?
Prop 13 (CA) punishes younger people who are just starting to buy a home, so it’s blatant age discrimination, and it punishes people who have to move around to follow their job, so it discriminates against certain working people but not others who can work in one place for a very long time, and it discriminates against those who might have to move for their own health reasons or to care for someone who has health problems, so it discriminates against those with disabilities or their caretakers too.
Under Prop 13, if you bought a home many decades ago in a beautiful area, but you never made any improvements for fire safety, water conservation, energy conservation, etc., your property taxes still remain extremely low even though it costs a lot more money for the county and state to support and defend your home.
If someone buys that same home today (at a far higher price) and tears it down fully, and then spends $8 million to rebuild a modern home that is totally off-grid, fully fire proof, has total rain water capture and storage (with fine filtering and sterilization for drinkability), and grey and black (toilet) water are run through an on-site filtration system and composting of the solids (both clean enough for use on landscapes), and install a well for any extra water needed, and the home is super well insulated, and install of wind & solar turbines with battery storage and a backup generator, and all food is grown on-site, and a fully stocked, underground survival room is added, and the access road is fully improved, and these new owners have ZERO children (no schools needed), then that massive investment to make this house indestructible will be punishable by the highest Prop 13 taxes in the region (due to higher purchase price and due to the $8 million remodel improvement). This new home needs zero support and services from the county or state, YET, the owners will pay more taxes than anyone in that area. How does that make any sense?
Prop 13 could have been much fairer if it indexed property taxes to the actual cost for the county and state to support that property. For those who bought a long time ago and their property taxes are very low (but their home value has risen substantially), then a revised Prop 13 could allow a yearly property tax lien to be placed on the property for any taxes unpaid in any given year. Once the home is sold, then the cumulated property taxes would be paid. This would be much more fair to everyone.
Analogy: Seniors cannot walk into a store and demand that they pay only 25 cents for a gallon of milk because that is what it cost in the 1970s. NOPE, those seniors have to pay the same cost for milk as anyone else. But we let slide this massive and discriminatory property tax policy called Prop. 13.
I like most don’t like taxes, I am willing to pay the property taxes if we pay lower income tax , But I agree with one remark this is not a one size fits all. It has taken years to build the infrastructure of most cites based on property taxes, removing them without finding a sound replacement or being prepared for the damage will be far more harmful. There are other things that can be cut such as the salaries of our politicians, reducing Medicare payments for those with income over $1,5m and higher, not paying our legislatures when they shut down the government and the workers don’t get paid. Increasing the tax payment for billionaires. I think those making the laws should check their own personal reductions for waste before looking at the people already working to make ends meet. Life is not fair and never will be, I respect the opportunity to get rich just don’t hinder me or my family from striving for the same dream!
The thing with this comment specifically, is that Florida does not have a state income tax. So if we were to get rid of property tax where would the money come from to fund the state? We did just pass a law in the state that had to do with inflation, similar to California’s Prop 13, but not exactly. It does not reduce the overall property taxes, it just gives homeowners on the homestead property a little more of an exemption for property taxes. This is not for every property owned. It is only for Homestead properties. Property taxes are killing our older generations who are on a fixed income.
I see a lot of people blaming the dept. of education, NIH, CFPB, USAID, etc. But that means that they have never looked at the Federal budget and the very small amounts that are spent in those agencies, money that has a good reason with benefits for every state and for the country. Sure, there may be some waste in every agency, but those are NOT big budget agencies.
Why are Trump/Musk not targeting the biggest agencies with the biggest waste?
The biggest waster of tax dollars is the DOD (Department of Defense ) with a whopping $877 Billion budget, the largest budget of any of the discretionary spending portions of the Federal budget. The DOD has not passed in audit for 7 years (yes even during the 1st Trump term).
So why has Musk NOT slashed and burned the Defense budget, despite everyone knowing the shocking waste and over-spending from its creation? That is NOT just caused by the DOD. It is also caused by politicians and defense contractor corporations wanting to bring jobs to every state and often shoving expensive projects down the throat of the Pentagon even as various military branches say they don’t need those items, at all! (like unwanted Abram tanks that now sit in outside storage areas, and unwanted planes that are unsafe but were built anyway, etc).
And the inflated costs charged by defense contractors is well documented. Musk is a huge defense contractor with Defense related satellites, so don’t expect to see his wasteful budget items cut. Musk was under investigation for his many unsafe satellite launches, including an investigation by the FAA, so that agency was quickly targeted by Musk.
Furthermore, military people will describe how they are ordered to dump UNused items, like military ordinance (bombs, bullets, etc) because if they retain ordinance, that military branch won’t get an increase in the next year’s budget. I knew people in the Marines who were outraged that millions of pounds of ammo was dumped into the ocean just so that branch could get more money to replace dumped ammo. But it happens in every branch.
My father was in the military, served in 2 wars, and worked in several defense companies, and he was furious at the waste and over-charging.
Social Security and Medicare are Mandatory budget items and are funded separately through payroll taxes, with employers paying half, employees the other half, or independent workers paying both halves. So these are TRUE entitlements because workers paid for them as part of their total compensation package. Social Security is NOT going bust, but funds will be less in the future if the taxes are not increased a little bit or benefits reduced a bit.
Trump added 2 trillion to the debt with his 1st term Billionaire tax cut, and he has promised to extend that indefinitely. Sure, why not. Billionaires need more money. Yeah, that makes sense (not!).
Mega Corporations get massive tax credits, tax cuts, and endless subsidies which most medium and small businesses do NOT get.
Those huge corporations often pollute massively and leave that cleanup cost to taxpayers (or let them get sick and die).
USAID is a small agency that gives aid, in part for good will for the U.S., but also for critical health care and disease prevention. I think it is very cost effective to STOP Ebola and anti-bacterial resistant TB from entering the U.S. and killing millions of people, which would be cruel and very costly. USAID helps to prevent that problem. That’s a great investment!
Trump’s press secretary waved a paper around (refusing to show details) claiming Musk had found $57,000 in waste at USAID, which turned out to be “climate related” funding, but that doesn’t mean it was wasteful. That $57K could have been used for teaching soil protection (no till farming) or saving water (better irrigation), or preventing pollution runoff, all of which saves farmers money but also reduces climate warming and other damages.
USAID’s recent budget is under $40 Billion (some websites say higher). But finding only $57,000 in waste is only 15 ten thousandth of 1% ($57,000 divided by $40 BILLION) = .0000014 decimal or 00014%.
By comparison, if you earned $1 million and “wasted the same tiny amount”, your waste would be $1.43 ($1 dollar and 43 cents) wasted out of a $1 million income).
So what! Chump change and Lost in the noise! Every company wastes far more than that and doesn’t shut itself down and fire all its employees!
It’s time to take off the ignorance hat and investigate what these agencies do and where real waste can be cut. But Trump/Musk are NOT targeting the biggest wasters. Trump gave $800 million of our tax dollars to farmers hurt by his 1st term tariffs. So there was NO savings to taxpayers, only increased debt. He is threatening to use tariffs again, so prepare for a higher debt or higher taxes for most of use (not the Billionaires).
Read some of the budget info while you can. Agency website info is being removed under Team Musk.
One commentor noted the Dept. of Education and wasteful spending?
The biggest waster of tax dollars is the DOD (Department of Defense ) with a whopping $877 Billion budget, the largest budget of any of the discretionary spending portions of the Federal budget. The DOD has not passed in audit for 7 years (yes even during the 1st Trump term).
So why has Musk NOT slashed and burned the Defense budget, despite everyone knowing the shocking waste and over-spending from its creation? That is NOT just caused by the DOD. It is also caused by politicians and defense contractor corporations wanting to bring jobs to every state and often shoving expensive projects down the throat of the Pentagon even as various military branches say they don’t need those items, at all! (like unwanted Abram tanks that now sit in outside storage areas, and unwanted planes that are unsafe but were built anyway, etc).
And the inflated costs charged by defense contractors is well documented. Musk is a huge defense contractor with Defense related satellites, so don’t expect to see his wasteful budget items cut. Musk was under investigation for his many unsafe satellite launches, including an investigation by the FAA, so that agency was quickly targeted by Musk.
Furthermore, military people will describe how they are ordered to dump UNused items, like military ordinance (bombs, bullets, etc) because if they retain ordinance, that military branch won’t get an increase in the next year’s budget.
I knew people in the Marines who were outraged that millions of pounds of ammo was dumped into the ocean just so that branch could get more money to replace dumped ammo. But it happens in every branch.
My father was in the military, served in 2 wars, and worked in several defense companies, and he was furious at the waste and over-charging.
You really need to get your facts straight. The federal government is an evil oppressor of the American people, thanks to the Democrats and RINOs. The federal government needs to be reduced by 90%.
Sorry, that comment was posted a 2nd time
We could get rid of most taxes if we stop Democrats from stealing tax money to buy votes and promote communism, socialism and fascism around the world. Almost every politician couldn’t hold a job in the real world.
All in, even reducing them to half of what they are would be tremendous. Half of the funds are allocated to cities for improvements.