{"id":291144,"date":"2026-05-31T21:14:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T21:14:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/291144\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T21:14:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T21:14:29","slug":"don-gaetz-backs-up-gov-desantis-proposal-to-eliminate-homestead-exemption-tax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/291144\/","title":{"rendered":"Don Gaetz backs up Gov. DeSantis proposal to eliminate homestead exemption tax"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gaetz said the elmination of the property tax is necessary for Florida residents to keep up with inflation. <\/p>\n

One of the Florida Senate\u2019s more senior leaders is endorsing a proposed revision of the state\u2019s homestead exemption structure to be addressed during the Legislative Special Session this week.<\/p>\n

Sen. D<\/a>on Gaetz<\/a>\u00a0said he\u2019s behind the proposal by Gov. Ron DeSantis who is asking lawmakers to give the go ahead to raising the homestead exemption limit to $150,000 beginning Jan. 1 and increasing that to $250,000 the following year. If the Senate Joint Resolution (SJR 2-F<\/a>) is approved, eventually the exemption would be phased out entirely.<\/p>\n

\u201cProperty taxes are especially hard on families with fixed incomes,\u201d the Seaside Republican said in a newsletter<\/a> to his Panhandle constituents.\u00a0\u201cThe soaring increase in assessed property values and, consequently, increased property taxes isn\u2019t keeping up with pensions and Social Security, for example.\u201d<\/p>\n

The DeSantis proposal has already drawn criticism from many corners<\/a> that see the elimination of the homestead taxes as depriving local governments of much needed revenue to fund municipal services. The Florida Policy Institute (FPI) Friday blasted the measure for cutting off billions of dollars from municipal governments and school districts if approved.<\/p>\n

The nonprofit and nonpartisan think tank published an analysis that claims the measure would cost school districts an average of $5 billion annually \u2014 the revenue loss would increase to $8.59 billion annually if lawmakers eliminate homestead property taxes by (fiscal year) 2030-2031. Another $4.8 billion in tax revenue would be drained from local governments initially and that would likely double in fiscal year 2030-2031, according to the FPI analysis<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Gaetz said he understands the skepticism of the DeSantis proposal. But he said it\u2019s still a necessary, if not inevitable, step.<\/p>\n

\u201cI agree that there are more and different ways to reduce property taxes other than the Governor\u2019s plan,\u201d Gaetz said.\u00a0\u201c But the fact is that neither the Senate nor the House has proposed a plan that could pass the Legislature and gain the support of the Governor and the voters.\u201d<\/p>\n

It will take 60% of the vote by both Senate and the House members to get approval.<\/p>\n

People who move to Florida after the constitutional amendment passes would have to pay homestead taxes for five years, DeSantis said, a backstop that is intended to \u201cmitigate\u201d undue benefits for newcomers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gaetz said the elmination of the property tax is necessary for Florida residents to keep up with inflation.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[11593,28,30,29,13487,122921,14559,123066,123067,15510,412,5950,122923,11279,122924],"class_list":["post-291144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-don-gaetz","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-florida-policy-institute","tag-fpi","tag-homestead-exemption","tag-legislative-special-session","tag-municipal-government","tag-newsletter","tag-ron-desantis","tag-school-districts","tag-senate-joint-resolution","tag-services","tag-sjr-2-f"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}