What is DeSantis hiding when it comes to property taxes? A former Florida state senator wants the governor's answer
For more than a year, Gov. Ron DeSantis has said he wants to do away with all homesteaded property taxes, arguing homeowners should not have to pay rent to the government.
It's a catchy line. And no politician ever lost votes promising to cut people's taxes. But where it can get challenging is in the details of how exactly it would work and what the ramifications of eliminating property taxes would be for schools, police and fire departments, as well as basic city and county services.
And so even though he has been bellowing about property taxes for months, he has offered nothing specific.
"Yeah, it's pretty amazing to find that the governor has not yet proposed anything in writing," former Republican State Senator Jeff Brandes told CBS News Miami for an episode of "Facing South Florida." "He's not put out a plan. He's not shown us the research. It's like the math doesn't work and so he doesn't want to tell us."
Brandes, president of the Florida Policy Project, said at this point, it is up to the Florida Legislature to take the lead in trying to get answers.
"The legislature really just needs to get its arms around this," he said. "What is the scope of this? We don't know how 400 cities and 67 counties are going to react to this. They're all going to act differently. They all have different homestead levels of participation. And for some of them, it'll bankrupt them. And the governor has acknowledged this and had said, `Well, we'll just backfill it.' But backfill with what? The state is looking to run a multi-billion-dollar deficit over the next two years."
Brandes said what the governor has done with his "no more property taxes" bluster is create a slogan, not a policy.
"This is a bumper sticker," Brandes said. "This is not a plan. This isn't even a proposal. It's a random musing at this juncture. It isn't a full policy proposal. We're talking about changing the foundation of the tax system of the state of Florida. You would think that when you're going to modify a foundation, you would need an engineering study. We have no studies. We are doing this on a vibe."
"He needs to put out his own plan. He has thousands of people working for him. He has stumped this all over the state. Why is it so difficult to put it in writing? Why isn't it so hard to show your work? It makes no sense," he continued. "And I think it's because as soon as he puts a plan out, it's a target that people will go after. And as long as he's talking about the hypotheticals, he doesn't have to really talk about the specifics."