MIAMI – Florida is considered a low-tax state, mostly because there is no personal income tax.
A new push is on to study whether to ax property tax, and at what cost such a move would come.
Property tax and sales tax are mostly what funds police and fire service, mass transit, public parks, schools and libraries.
A state senator from Southwest Florida filed a bill to study the effect eliminating property taxes would have on the state.
“The taxes are one thing we can control through government action,” said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday.
It’s a message he’s been delivering for weeks.
On This Week in South Florida Sunday, host Glenna Milberg took a little dive into the devil in the detail with her guest, WLRN Senior Economics Editor Tom Hudson.
“The exponential increase in sales tax to make up all revenue that would be lost by a prop tax being eliminated, but the bill also talks about the potential of budget cuts,” he said.
That’s one of the reasons a report made public by the Florida Tax Institute calls eliminating property tax a “risky proposition” that could weaken local governments.
Even so, state government doesn’t have that power, because property taxes are local, not state.
But voters do, via casting ballots for some future constitutional amendment, and that’s what the new bill would to start to study.
The study would be just the start, but let’s see if Florida lawmakers pass it during their upcoming legislative session that begins next week.
