Budget, redistricting push property tax cuts down on lawmakers' agenda

Gov. Ron DeSantis has been campaigning for a large property tax cut for more than a year, promising lawmakers will put it on the November ballot.

But with less than seven months until the election, no consensus plan has emerged from the Legislature to put before voters. And there likely won’t be any time soon.

Lawmakers will be busy approving new congressional districts when they meet for a special session on April 28. DeSantis originally set the session for April 20 but postponed it and added two of his top priorities – consumer protections for artificial intelligence and relaxing vaccine requirements.

Once all that is done, legislators will have to figure out how to break a stalemate over the budget.

House and Senate leaders are at odds over the next fiscal year’s spending plan. House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, prefers a $113.6 billion budget, while the Senate passed a $115 billion plan.

The long to-do list means DeSantis’ major priority will likely get pushed until late May – at the earliest.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Ed Hooper, R-Trinity, said it’s possible for lawmakers to include a property tax cut proposal in a special session on the budget, but consensus has been difficult to reach on that, too.

One sticking point has been how to treat rural counties that don’t have a large property tax base, or a large alternative source of revenue to pay for services if that source is drastically reduced.

Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, has cautioned about the need to prevent “fiscally constrained” counties from being left behind by a major property tax cut.

While the House put forward eight different plans during the regular session, and passed one to eliminate property taxes for the non-school portion of the bill for homestead owners, the Senate didn’t advance any similar proposal.

Hooper said they’re still working on it.

“The Senate’s been working quite a bit on that issue. And you haven’t seen a plan – we don’t have eight plans,” Hooper said. “There’s 67 totally different counties in this state, and a property tax issue that is great for one county could crush 31 poor counties.”