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DeSantis threatens veto of sales tax cut, insisting Floridians need property taxes cut

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Published  May 7, 2025 9:53am EDT
Ron DeSantis
FOX 13 News
DeSantis holds property tax roundtable in Tampa

DeSantis holds property tax roundtable in Tampa

FOX 13's Evan Axelbank reports.

The Brief

    • Governor Ron DeSantis threatened to veto a sales tax cut, insisting that Floridians need their property taxes cut.
    • The plan from the Florida House would give residents back about $50 per year.
    • The governor's plan would rebate homesteaded Floridians between $300 and $1,000.

TAMPA - The fight over how the state of Florida should cut taxes continued in Tampa on Wednesday as Governor Ron DeSantis held a roundtable discussion with Senator Blaise Ingoglia and a Hillsborough County homeowner.

DeSantis is insisting that House leaders cut property taxes, threatening to veto a sales tax cut.

The plan from the Florida House would give back about $50 per year, and DeSantis says it would cut Florida sales taxes by a quarter of a penny.

The Florida House says their plan for a sales tax cut would actually total around three quarters of a penny.

Governor Ron DeSantis threatened to veto a sales tax cut, insisting that Floridians need their property taxes cut.

The governor said he’s in favor of putting Floridians first, not the millions of visitors to the state each year.

What they're saying:

"Why are we proposing a tax break for non-Florida residents, for foreigners, for the 142 million people that visit us? No, it's good that they’re contributing. Your roads get built because of the visitors and the non-floridians contribute," DeSantis said.

Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, Daniel Perez, says that this fight isn't about deciding between the two tax cut options.

"I’m concerned about how confused the Governor seems to be. He is threatening to veto the largest state tax cut in history, and his excuse is that it limits our ability to cut local property taxes? That’s bizarre, Perez said. "We can cut the sales tax by the largest amount in the history of our country and place a ballot initiative on property taxes on the 2026 ballot. This isn’t about whether we can do both - it’s about whether we will."

READ: DeSantis signs law banning fluoride in drinking water throughout Florida

DeSantis says his plan would effectively help homesteaded Floridians by much more.

"We would only do it for homesteaded Floridians. We are not going to do this for the snowbirds, but you could get a rebate on property tax between $300 and $1,000 depending on the way the package would go," DeSantis said.

The Florida House has put in place a property tax commission made up of 37 house members of all political stripes.

The governor ridiculed that today, saying there are too many people on it to be effective.

What's next:

House leaders are proposing five different property tax cut ideas, including basing cuts on how long someone has owned their home for.

They had their first meeting last week, and could hold another meeting when the entire legislature comes back to discuss the budget in the next two months.

The governor also mentioned that he is pushing for a summer marine fuel tax holiday and tax holiday this summer for firearms.

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The Source: Information for this story was provided by the press office of Governor Ron DeSantis.

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