TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — WPTV is asking questions about the impacts if property taxes ended in Florida.
Reporter Matt Sczesny looked into the numbers that could hit your wallet.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis kickstarted the push against property taxes at a news conference last month in Miami-Dade County.
"Ultimately you buy a house and own the land you have to pay the government for the courtesy of just exercising your property rights, not really a good thing," DeSantis said.
At the Capitol in Tallahassee, fellow Republicans responded with bills to either cut property taxes or eliminate them.
But what about the loss of revenue?
"You will have to make up for that income somewhere else, which often times where your make up for it is very regressive, like a sales tax," state Sen. Lori Berman, D-Boca Raton, said.
Berman told WPTV that counties and cities would make up the millions and billions by raising taxes on purchases.
“Property taxes are really important when it comes to fiscal autonomy, home rule power," Esteban Santis with the Florida Policy Institute, a nonpartisan group, said. "They finance things like schools, public safety, this includes police and fire rescue, public libraries, parks, infrastructure,”
The Florida Policy Institute studied the effects of eliminating property taxes in Florida, finding some way to make up about $43 billion statewide for local governments and schools.
And it fell on the state sales tax — which would have to rise from 6% to 12% — making it the highest in the country and would drive up the cost of most everything we buy.
"In the report we mentioned, this is being very conservative, in the sense we assume constant demand," Santis said. "If prices go up, demand will go down and what are you going to do to offset the revenue loss."
In other words, he said, we all may still have to pay.
Matt Sczesny is determined every day to help you find solutions in Florida's coverage collapse. If you have a question or comment on homeowners insurance, you can reach out to him any time.
