Eliminating property taxes in poor Florida counties

DeSantis offers plan to eliminate property taxes for poor, rural counties

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants the state to take over some funding of government services for rural, thinly-populated fiscally constrained counties and allow them to eliminate their property taxes.

DeSantis made the statement at an economic development announcement in Crawfordville on Monday.

His estimate of how much this would cost Florida taxpayers would be about $300 million per year, a drop in the bucket of the nearly $50 billion in general fund spending that is part of a tentative budget deal by lawmakers.

The state’s fiscally distressed counties, as listed by the Florida Secretary of State’s Office includes: Baker, Bradford, Calhoun, Columbia, DeSoto, Dixie, Flagler, Franklin, Gadsden, Gilchrist, Glades, Gulf, Hamilton, Hardee, Hendry, Highlands, Holmes, Jackson, Jefferson, Lafayette, Levy, Liberty, Madison, Nassau, Okeechobee, Putnam, Suwannee, Taylor, Union, Wakulla, Washington and Walton counties.

So, for the moment Mayor Resch, you can relax but it’s part of DeSantis’ ultimate goal to get all homesteaded property owners in Florida a one-time rebate and later permanent relief on their property taxes, which have been increasing due to annual assessments. Property taxes are levied at $1 per $1,000 of assessed value, known as a mill.

Read about it...