{"id":298218,"date":"2026-06-06T07:43:30","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T07:43:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/298218\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T07:43:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T07:43:30","slug":"desantis-embraces-tax-the-rich-talk-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/298218\/","title":{"rendered":"DeSantis embraces tax-the-rich talk in Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Florida<\/p>\n

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has pitched his proposal to reduce property taxes in part as a plan to shift some of the state\u2019s tax burden to the wealthy.<\/p>\n

Pedro Portal<\/p>\n

Miami<\/p>\n

Tallahassee<\/p>\n

Gov. Ron DeSantis built his political brand by railing against illegal immigration, \u201cwoke\u201d ideology and progressive tax reforms. Now, as he campaigns to slash property taxes, the term-limited Republican is selling a new message more commonly associated with the political left: Let the rich pay more.<\/p>\n

DeSantis has increasingly embraced that message as he pushes a sweeping overhaul of Florida\u2019s property tax system<\/a>, arguing that wealthy snowbirds, investors and owners of luxury properties should shoulder more of the tax burden so that homesteaded Floridians can pay less \u2014 or eventually nothing at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cTax someone rich. If some billionaire from Brazil is buying, tax them. Good, that\u2019s fine with me,\u201d he said last week. \u201cI\u2019m looking out for the Floridians here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s pitch is laced with a pinch of political irony: DeSantis and fellow Republicans are selling a tax proposal designed to protect middle-class homeowners by preserving taxes on wealthy property owners and second-home buyers. Democrats, meanwhile, say the rhetoric sounds strikingly similar to the populist arguments advanced by the very progressives DeSantis routinely attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sounds very Mamdani of him,\u201d said Democratic Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith of Orlando, referring to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist whom DeSantis has repeatedly derided as a \u201ccommunist.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

DeSantis is not pushing for the same tax hikes on the uber-wealthy that the Mamdanis of the world have. In fact, the tax relief in the governor\u2019s proposal would still benefit wealthy homeowners, and DeSantis has touted Florida as a safe haven for billionaires disillusioned with liberal strongholds like California and New York.<\/p>\n

But the governor has repeatedly argued that Florida should capitalize on the resulting influx of wealth flowing into the state. Rather than taxing primary residences, he says local governments can draw revenue from tourists and wealthy out-of-state residents who purchase vacation homes in Florida.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: DeSantis has claims about his tax plan. What will actually be on the ballot?<\/a><\/p>\n

He recently pointed to South Florida\u2019s luxury real-estate market, noting that \u201csome of the wealthiest people in the history of humanity\u201d are buying homes in Miami and other coastal communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would you want to have all this wealth come in and then just price middle-class people out?\u201d DeSantis said. \u201cI would capitalize … on that wealth by relieving middle-class people of a burden so that they can actually afford to live in Miami-Dade like back when it was less expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Democrats have seized on the governor\u2019s rhetoric, arguing that DeSantis himself has framed the debate as one of shifting more of the tax burden onto the wealthy.<\/p>\n

\u201cRon DeSantis stated it earlier this week: We need to tax the rich,\u201d Rep. Angie Nixon, a Jacksonville Democrat, told lawmakers Monday while pitching an amendment that would impose taxes on billionaires and individuals with more than $500 million in assets.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you really care about hardworking everyday Floridians here in our state, you would be in agreement with me, and you would definitely indeed tax these billionaires,\u201d Nixon added.<\/p>\n

Republicans swiftly rejected Nixon\u2019s proposal, and GOP leaders appear more focused on framing the ballot amendment as a boon for middle-class homeowners. Some Republicans seem wary of adopting the political argument should rely more heavily on wealthy property owners, investors and second-home buyers while reducing costs for primary residents.<\/p>\n

The sponsor of the House\u2019s property tax bill, Rep. Toby Overdorf, told reporters Tuesday that he doesn\u2019t support a billionaire tax \u201cin any way, shape or form. In fact, we\u2019ve seen a tremendous amount of negativity toward that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy Democrat compatriots have been talking about it being a tax shift. I\u2019m focused on the savings associated with the Florida homeowner and what they\u2019re going to be getting back in their pockets,\u201d he added. \u201cThe choice of the revenue coming in is going to be the choice of that local area. Yeah, how they\u2019re going to generate that revenue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Incoming House Speaker Sam Garrison said as much on Monday as lawmakers debated the governor\u2019s proposal to dramatically expand homestead tax relief. The Clay County Republican said he is unconcerned if owners of multimillion-dollar waterfront properties continue paying taxes while lower-income homeowners receive relief.<\/p>\n

He added that the best feature of the governor\u2019s proposal is that it focuses on \u201cjust regular Floridians.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy district, my heart is with those folks who aren\u2019t billionaires [and] don\u2019t have million-dollar homes,\u201d Garrison said, noting that all homeowners will receive the same exemption amount under the ballot measure. \u201cWe\u2019re not picking winners and losers.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article has been updated to reflect New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s correct title.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published June 3, 2026 at 2:16 PM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has pitched his proposal to reduce property taxes in part as a plan to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-298218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298218","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=298218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}