Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) holds a property tax relief roundtable.
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00:00us state senator blaze angolia from the tampa bay region just north of here uh president ceo
00:06the james madison institute bob mcclure uh we have nathan shirk as a local real estate agent
00:11tampa resident kathy gallo uh we also have joining us our great senator jay collins from
00:17the tampa area so i want to thank you um and we have other uh dignitaries with us so thanks
00:22everyone for being here we're here today to discuss an issue that i think is really significant
00:28for a lot of floridians and that's the burden of property taxes and the need for property tax
00:33relief this is something i've been talking about for many many months now after listening to folks
00:39and trying to figure out what can we do to make florida even better we are currently one of the
00:46best states for if not the best for state level taxation we have no income tax and a decent chunk
00:55of the revenue that the state generates is not paid by florida residents it's paid by snowbirds
01:01and visitors and tourists and isn't that the way you want taxation to go uh offload as much of the
01:08burden to non-residents as possible so that we can relieve the burden on our residents i think that
01:13makes a lot of sense and that's the the philosophy that we need to continue to do so so we've had that
01:19but you also have at the local level property taxes and while we do have things like homestead exemption
01:25which helps softens the blow uh the reality is is we're not even in the top 20 when it comes to
01:31property taxes and we need to change that and we need to make sure that we're giving taxpayers relief
01:37when it comes to property taxes and we have a philosophical you know issue you know if you come and
01:44you're a tourist from canada and you visit florida you know you can choose to buy what you want and
01:49purchase what it's voluntary right so when you're paying the tax uh there's just there's a voluntary
01:54element to it most of the essentials that people need like food um and water are not taxed uh under
02:00florida sales tax anyways so you can go you can decide to go on that vacation to florida knowing that
02:05you have to pay uh different taxes for your purchases when it comes to owning your home though for some
02:12reason uh they don't give you a choice in that uh you own your property you own your house and yet
02:17you got to perpetually pay which is effectively pay taxes which is effectively rent to the government
02:23just to be able to live on your property if you stop paying the property tax they could then and they
02:29could take your property and so that's wrong and uh philosophically it's not the way you would want
02:35to raise revenue you would much prefer to do it on consumption particularly when we have 142
02:41million visitors who come to florida and are able to contribute to to the coffers and so that's
02:48really what it means to be to be a low tax state now we have seen in recent years a dramatic increase
02:55in property values now there's some benefit to that if that's your main source of wealth that you own
03:01that's going to go up you're going to be wealthier as a result of that uh but on the flip side of that is
03:07your house gets assessed as more even though you don't you didn't sell it it's just an unrealized
03:13gain and you get higher higher valuations and even with homestead it still goes up in terms of what you
03:19pay and especially when people have to move and then they buy a new house then they're at a much higher
03:25cost basis tax basis and then that becomes very difficult so the the burden of property taxes is real
03:32we are we have launched a doge effort from the state government that is looking at our agencies
03:39because we do that doesn't matter of course but we want to do better looking at our universities but
03:44also looking at local governments and so we had a number of local governments who have volunteered to
03:49participate in that some of the ones that need it the most have been the least likely to want to
03:54participate in that we tried to work with the legislature to get doge in law so that we could send teams
04:01down to these city and county governments because i think what you've seen is you go back to the last
04:05four or five years you've seen big growths in these budgets um that really outstrips population growth by
04:11a long long shot and so the question is is do they need to be spending that much money do they need to be
04:18taking money from you and property taxes to fuel increase in budgets and i think you should know and
04:23you should as taxpayers have an ability to evaluate that appropriately and so we are going to do
04:31a uh you know we're going to continue to work to to to get the doge where it needs to be i mean we've
04:36already done we um we helped uh we met with elon musk a couple months ago and we had rejected federal
04:43spending under biden they didn't know how to take it back and so is it so we we work with them and they
04:48revoke the authorization so that was contributing almost a billion dollars to the doge efforts we just
04:54announced uh some of the grants uh and alerted them and they've taken back some federal grants from
04:59universities such as west florida which was about social justice and that's not an appropriate use
05:05of tax dollars so we've been working really hard to do it having said that uh most of these budgets
05:12if you just went back to 2019 2020 levels you wouldn't miss a beat on a lot of this stuff i mean
05:18you really could could get the job done so we want to be able to show that because some people say oh well
05:23we want property tax relief but quote it just can't be done yeah it can be done okay florida's proven
05:28we can get big things done and so you can do it and it's something that i think are is really really
05:34important now we have provided since i've been governor record amount of tax relief for florida
05:41residents including um in this most recent year uh we've eliminated well a couple years ago we fully
05:48eliminated uh sales tax on all baby items so diapers wipes all these things that's not taxable in florida
05:56anymore it used to be taxable we got that off the books we've done disaster preparedness tax holidays
06:03we've done back to school tax holidays we're proposing for this summer to do a marine fuel
06:11tax holiday so that you can fuel up your boats without having to pay a tax on the fuel as well
06:17as a second amendment summer so that you can buy what you need for second amendment activities without
06:22tax and there's a whole bunch of other things that that irons in the fire but we've done billions and
06:27billions of dollars in tax relief and i think people appreciate it uh it's kind of like every little bit
06:34helps uh we've we've done um i mean we did a toll relief for for commuters uh half a billion dollars
06:42uh each of the last two years uh total a billion dollars total people appreciate that they get a 50
06:48rebate on their tolls and only applied to florida residents and so if you had a transponder from out of
06:53state it didn't apply uh we've done the freedom summer where you can go and get no tax on outdoor
07:00activities so we we even get a gas tax holiday when gas really spiked under biden and we're proud of
07:07that and we want to make sure that we're continuing to stand with taxpayers um here's the thing though
07:14i called for property tax relief most of this obviously is local we know that but there is part of it that
07:20the state mandates for uh it's called required local effort for education uh i've proposed we have the
07:29money to fully fund the education budget and we can send you a rebate on your property taxes this year
07:35people could get and we'd only do it for homesteaded floridians okay do it for the snowbirds but you
07:40could get a rebate on property tax between 300 and a thousand dollars depending on the on the way the
07:45package would go um isn't that something that would be beneficial and then we're going to build
07:50to do a property tax relief on the ballot in 2026 which is really how you have to do it
07:57to do a constitutional amendment to provide protections for homeowners so so this is all very
08:03doable now there's folks in the florida house of representatives if you followed how this has gone
08:10in the legislative session when i proposed something the leadership there they just reflexively oppose it
08:17i mean that's their view now they didn't run on that they ran on our agenda and they seized power
08:22because of us they wouldn't have a super majority if it wasn't for us and yet they're there just trying
08:29to stop you know good progress so go back to january uh before president trump took office i called the
08:35special session of the legislature uh because we needed to increase our cooperation and authorities to
08:43assist the federal government with president trump's immigration enforcement agenda very popular with the
08:49voters that sent us there was a big part of the president's mandate obviously there's not enough
08:55federal authorities in terms of ice agents to get the job done without state and local cooperating and so
09:02we said in florida all state and local must cooperate we're not a sanctuary state and we want to make sure
09:09that they're on board we also want to make sure that we have appropriate legal authorities to hold criminal
09:15aliens so they're not we don't do catch and release we also want to make it a crime to illegally enter
09:20florida and you know we had a liberal judge but that always happens we'll work that through so we wanted
09:26a really robust package and the leadership in the florida house rejected doing that they said it was
09:32premature you know they said it wasn't necessary and all this stuff they attacked me and what happened
09:39was and the people had a really negative reaction to that people like do your job you need to be on board
09:45with the president you need to be on board with the governor and they weren't willing to do that
09:49and so they got a lot of blowback so then finally they had to come to the table but they tried
09:55to jam through a bill to make florida a de facto sanctuary state so rejecting my call to have state and local
10:02cooperate rejecting my call to end catch and release rejecting really and it's not even me like i'm doing
10:09what people who are smart in this area know needs to be done and what the people wanted to see happen
10:15and so they tried to do that and that blew up in their face and so finally you know they had to be
10:19brought kicking and screaming to do the legislation we have and now what's happening florida's leading
10:26the nation uh on state level immigration enforcement and we are the bright spot working with the trump
10:32administration to get the job done we just had operation tidal wave they rounded up 12 1300 illegal aliens
10:39many of them either had criminal charges or had already been ordered to be deported because you
10:44know you hear due process um and first of all you know you come illegally you're not entitled to an oj
10:50simpson trial before you can be deported deport deportation is not a punishment it's basically just
10:57enforcing the state's sovereignty and obviously you want to make sure that people don't have a right to
11:02be here i mean so there needs to be you know some check on that for sure but the idea of this should be
11:08dragged out is ridiculous having said that once they've already gone through this process and have
11:13been ordered to be removed why are we having any discussion at that point of course you want to do
11:19it but they they were opposed to that and the reason why i mean look i think that they are more uh the
11:24leadership in the house was probably more sympathetic with more the open borders but part of it was they
11:28didn't want me to to get to get a quote win that's how these people think they're not trying to do your
11:34your business they're pursuing their own personal agenda they have vendettas they have these things
11:40and so that was a a really telltale sign that is not the way uh you should be operating you should
11:46be doing the people's business and this was something that had major support and obviously
11:51it's been very effective and so that's kind of the backdrop on all this stuff and so they don't want
11:58to do property tax relief and how do you know that well they rejected my calls to do it during the
12:05regular session but then the house leadership convened on the last day of session a hearing on a task
12:13force for property tax with 37 members including some of the most liberal democrats who do not want to
12:20give you property tax relief in the entire state of florida you don't convene a 37 person committee if
12:27you're trying to get something done you convene a 37 person committee if you're trying to smother it
12:32in the crib they're trying to kill any chance of property tax relief by doing this committee and if
12:40this was if you were so committed to this why would you wait till the last day of the legislative session
12:47to do it obviously this is a political ploy it is not something that is real so so you have that
12:54uh but then what are they trying to do well because we want to do property tax they've come up with an
13:01idea that i don't think i've heard a single voter endorse as being something that would be good
13:07their idea instead of giving you property tax relief they want to do an across the board
13:14one quarter of one penny reduction in the state sales tax now what would that mean for you
13:22the average floridian would save a whopping 47 dollars if they were to do it but what would it also do
13:30it would relieve the burden on canadian tourists visitors we had 142 million visitors i want them to pay
13:40more and you as floridians to pay less why are we doing why are we proposing a tax um a tax break for
13:48non-florida residents for foreigners for one of the 542 million people that visit us no it's good that
13:54they're contributing uh your roads get built because the visitors and the non floridians contribute um and
14:02so why would you do it you literally won't even notice that you that you have the lower because it's one
14:07quarter of a penny and most of the staples that you do aren't taxed subject to the sales tax anyways
14:14so it isn't like families that are struggling at the grocery store and groceries are expensive
14:19that they're going to see some type of benefit because they're not so it's so small but what it
14:24does do uh because we're fortunate to have a lot of revenue coming to the state from non-residents
14:31because it's geared to benefit non-residents it would be over 10 years between 16 and 20 billion dollar
14:38fiscal loss for the state now first of all like i i think that we've paid down debt we've run big
14:44surpluses we've done tax cuts we've done key things key infrastructure projects education all that we we
14:50have a great formula we've retired uh 41 of the state's debt for the whole history of florida just
14:56since i've been governor we did an accelerated debt repayment program where we're retiring it early
15:02and we've saved the taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in interest costs so we've got a great
15:08formula but why would they be doing it they're doing it because this would basically kill any chance of
15:16doing property tax relief for folks because what are they going to say next year oh well we don't have
15:21the money to do property tax relief because you know this is mostly money going to locals but if you do a
15:27major reform there's going to be a transition period you may need the state to take some of our surplus
15:33and help some of the local communities like rural communities as they transition their tax base away
15:39from taxing their own people so the purpose of what they're proposing is to stop us from getting any type
15:47of property tax relief is there anyone here that would prefer one quarter of one penny relief
15:54to property tax relief or do you want property tax relief i mean i don't even think it's a question
16:01and so i've never seen anything be proposed that has so little little buy-in people are not clamoring
16:09to give canadian tourists a tax break so we need to have a florida first tax policy here and that means
16:17standing up for our own people before we're standing up for the tourists and the foreigners and i
16:24look forward to working with uh the uh the senate and and and relevant house members uh to to have a good
16:33florida first tax package but i can tell you any florida last tax package is going to be dead on arrival we
16:40are not going to kneecap our ability to provide you property tax relief just so we can give a little bit of a
16:47benefit uh to canadian tourists that is not going to happen so you can take that to the bank now what do
16:54we need to do uh going forward uh obviously a 47 tax cut is not going to go very far you won't even notice
17:03it because you don't even get that in one it'd be one thing if you at least got that you get like four
17:08cents here 20 cents here i mean it's it's insane um we need to make sure uh that we're delivering property tax
17:16relief uh i propose to do uh relief this year but then parlay that into a ballot initiative that would
17:24allow floridians to be able to own their home without having to pay rent to the government i mean
17:31wouldn't that be great um if we can get to that point but the only way you're going to get to that
17:35point is if we continue the successful model that florida's had um doing some of these tangents that's
17:42going to kneecap our ability to do that is not the right way to go forward um as a state so we want
17:50florida first policies we want florida first tax relief we want to focus our tax reduction efforts
17:58on what will make the biggest impact for florida families for our senior citizens for people that
18:04are working hard um and trying to make ends meet and that is what we are going to do i don't want to be
18:1021st in property tax i want to be at the top we're the top we just announced uh us news economy number
18:19one in america two years in a row higher education number one uh overall ranking we were 13 when i
18:26became governor they now have us at six for all these other things and some of the things they rank
18:31we've deliberately tried to go in a different direction and i think to the benefit of the state
18:36so we got to build off that but i want to be top for property tax i want to be a friend to the taxpayer
18:44here in the state of florida let's make sure we have such a unique opportunity we had 142 million
18:52visitors last year we have a unique opportunity amongst all the states to have non-residents shoulder
18:59the tax burden and for us to bring relief to our florida residents and that's what's got to be
19:04focused this proposal i've seen floated by the house leadership would do the opposite of that it would
19:11effectively kill any opportunity to do property tax reform uh it would shift the tax burden away from
19:20the tourists and the foreigners and the snowbirds more towards florida residents why would you deliberately
19:27choose to do that when we have this golden goose of all these tourists and visitors and snowbirds
19:33uh that come and i know they talk about canadians aren't coming anymore i can just tell you you know
19:37i ask people uh people are doing well in the in the industry in florida you know we've had a lot of people come
19:44this year now 142 million i don't know if that could ever be replicated but we're at least in the ballpark
19:50so that's what we need to be doing we need to put our our constituents first and it's not about
19:56personal agendas it's about doing what's right by the people that elected us to do and that is what
20:01you can expect from me okay we're going to do uh blaze and golia thank you governor can everybody hear me
20:07okay uh first i want to governor i want to thank you and i think everyone needs to understand that the
20:13governor has been leading on a lot of issues and he's been ahead of the curve on a lot he was ahead of the
20:18curve on covid he was ahead of the curve on dei he was ahead of the curve on immigration and he's ahead
20:25of the curve so far ahead of the curve than most people on property taxes what people have to
20:31understand and i think what everyone listening to me understands the people in this audience understand
20:36is that we are headed if not already in a property tax revolt we are seeing property taxes skyrocket
20:42at sort of the levels that we saw in the mid 2000s um in the mid 2000s not different than what we're
20:49seeing right now you've seen a rise in property values a corresponding rise in property uh taxes
20:56and then governments have expanded beyond their wildest dreams over the last five years just five
21:03years ago local governments have increased their general fund budgets by anywhere between 60 to 120
21:10a lot of them have doubled over the last five years now if somebody's going to say that government
21:17can't cut they're lying to you they can with the governor's doge efforts um with just prudent fiscal
21:24responsibility there is enough money for local governments uh to cut but they're not going to cut
21:29by themselves they're going to have to be forced to cut and this is why given property tax relief is so
21:35important i did two events yesterday one in the villages which is part of my district and one in
21:40hernando county is part of my district governor we have we haven't had an opportunity to talk about
21:43this but in total there was about 300 people in both of those um events and i asked the question
21:50would you rather have a sales tax cut or a property tax cut every single one except for two said that
21:59they wanted a property tax cut now the two were canadian so i understand why they wanted the sales tax cut
22:06but i don't understand and and it's not just them governor i'm going to tell you why don't we do
22:10this room if you had a choice property tax relief or one quarter of one penny in sales tax who would
22:16choose property tax relief there you go who would choose one quarter of one penny anybody there are no
22:23can we don't have any canadians here come on all right well that was unanimous
22:27but um look i don't and it's not just it's just not the people in the floridians and and the homeowners
22:36that want property tax relief um nobody that i talked to governor even in the legislature believed
22:42that a sales to the sales tax cut is the way to go a lot of our members our friends in the senate a lot
22:46of our friends in the house believe that uh property taxes cuts is the way to go look the proposals out
22:52there are about uh five bill they started off with five billion then they're down to 2.8 billion but
22:58let's start with the five billion dollar number on the governor's plan uh every person every homeowner
23:04um is going to be able to get a roughly a one thousand dollar property tax rebate and that's
23:11substantive that compared to about fifty dollars under a sales tax um and that's a big deal but here's the
23:17thing also cutting sales tax let's walk through this local governments i think most people that
23:22agree that government cannot get enough money if it was up to them right do you really think that if
23:27we cut their sales tax that they're not going to make up their shortfalls by turning around and raising
23:32the millage rate and getting that money back or putting referendums on the ballot to replace the
23:37state sales tax with the local sales they would just add if they if the state legislature did one quarter
23:44of one penny a lot of the locals would just add one quarter of one penny to theirs i mean like literally
23:50you probably wouldn't get 47 either you most places you probably end up getting nothing um and and it
23:56would obviously kneecap the ability to do property tax relief at the state level yeah look so this idea
24:02that um they're going to save 56 or whatever it is is i just think is it's it's a lie because locals are
24:10just going to raise and they're going to replace that revenue the only way to get locals to cut
24:14their budgets is by substantive tax reform and that's what governor is talking about he's floated
24:20a bunch of ideas doubling tripling the property tax exemption he's talking about taking the next six
24:25seven months and really investigating and see how we can get rid of property taxes for homesteaded
24:30properties these are big ideas these ideas that the ones that attract people to live in the state of
24:37florida and that's why we have the moniker the free state of florida so i can tell you governor that
24:43from my perspective from the people that i talk to all the time including my colleagues nobody wants
24:48sales tax relief tax relief everyone wants property tax relief i do not see the wisdom in giving tax relief
24:57to canadians brazilians and tourists when we can give it to our neighbors our friends and our family
25:03well said okay bob mcclure james madison institute is one of our groups headquartered in tallahassee that
25:11you know gets involved in policy in florida and limited government philosophy obviously with james
25:17madison so i appreciate him being here thank you governor and thank you for hosting us today
25:23isn't it great to live in a state where the argument is about cutting taxes as as opposed to finding ways to
25:29to spend more money in tallahassee that's the greatness of the leadership of the governor and
25:34the senators in this room is that the men and women who believe in giving money back to you as opposed
25:41to finding ways to spend more of it senator angolia talked about it we are truly the free state of florida
25:48and that's the important thing to understand here property tax and the governor's proposal is about the
25:54american dream my youngest daughter finally got married recently and she married a young man and
26:02they live in an apartment they want to buy a home they want to realize the american dream it's about
26:08wealth creation it's about what's next for our children and for those of you that have grandchildren
26:13it's about what's next for your grandchildren in this state the governor as he referenced we have
26:19been depending on the index number one place to start a business number one place to retire best
26:26education system in the country every index has florida in the top three or four the two issues where
26:32we were challenged and have been challenged one was property insurance which the governor and past
26:37legislatures addressed to bring down the cost of property insurance and the governor and his leadership
26:45and the leadership of past legislatures have done that now we're fighting that back to continue to
26:50bring down the cost of property insurance the other is housing affordability and with that directly comes
26:58property taxes property taxes continue to rise as a governor referenced faster than the rate of
27:05inflation at the local level this is not an issue of revenue for local governments this is a spending
27:12issue for local governments so the ability to cut eliminate reduce property taxes is cleaner for the consumer gives
27:22more money to the pockets of floridians like my young daughter and her new husband who want to start a life
27:29here in florida she would be an eighth she is an eighth generation floridian and so property taxes will bring
27:37to florida more money in your pocket in the pockets of those around the state it's cleaner it's the american
27:45dream and it is a wealth creation the sales tax reduction simply gives more money as has been referenced
27:52to canadians canadian tourists and people snowbirds who come here and then leave so as a policy organization
28:00with the research in hand we at the james madison institute have done tremendous work on the data and the
28:07role of reducing or eliminating property taxes we are truly the free state of florida we have one or
28:14two issues we must continue to push on top of the great things that have been done and the governor's
28:19leadership on reducing or eliminating property taxes is the key to a better future in florida for you
28:27and for your children and for your grandchildren thank you well said okay nathan one of our local realtors
28:34thank you i'm excited to be here um i'm here to talk about the affordability of it so i'm in
28:40the industry day-to-day people buying million dollar homes and people buying their first home at 350 000
28:46and the affordability is such a challenge right now if you go buy a house under 400 000 a 370 000 house
28:53you're going to have a tax bill of five thousand dollars more that's over 400 a month that you're
28:58going to be paying for your taxes and people go and they do their online application for
29:04their their mortgage they didn't speak to anybody and they would look up a house and like oh taxes
29:08are 2500 and they they get their pre-qualification letter and then they go to another lender and you
29:15do a tax estimator and you realize oh it's not 2500 your taxes are going to be 6700 and all of a sudden
29:22they're go they go from a 400 000 purchase to a 300 000 purchase and they cannot afford to buy these homes
29:28you talked about your your children your daughter renting an apartment i have two kids a seven and
29:32a six year old and 20 years from now if values don't increase at all which we know is not going
29:38to happen they're going to go buy a 400 000 house and they're not going to be able to afford that tax
29:44bill on it meanwhile somebody has just bought a house seven years ago their house could be worth
29:49a million dollars and it will be less than somebody buying an entry-level home that's great for all of
29:54us that have owned homes but my kids and your kids and the future kids or people that want to relocate
30:00to florida and raise their families here they start looking elsewhere because they just cannot simply
30:07afford the property tax burden that comes onto them and you could be 28 years old and lived in florida your
30:12entire life and you get no tax benefit from buying your first home your parents might have gotten the
30:18benefit and that's fantastic but now you get to buy a house and your tax bill is higher than your
30:24parents home and it's worth three times as much as yours and i think the homestead exemption i think
30:28it started in the 30s i believe in 2008 maybe it was increased up to fifty thousand dollars well since
30:342008 we've seen property values double triple sometimes quadruple in value and yet the homestead exemption
30:40hasn't changed so i'm excited about this initiative and i'm excited about what you're doing happy to be here
30:45great okay kathy tampa resident thank you yes make sure you speak into the mic and retired uh tampa resident
30:54and my uh uh we pay 529 a month towards our property taxes that's a huge sum of money for someone who's
31:05on a fixed income and what does an individual do when something impacts your budget you look for ways to
31:13reduce your expenditures which is what we did so we don't have cable anymore and we changed our phone
31:19plan and we made the uh took the excruciating step of going from two cars to one trust me it's it's a
31:27traumatic experience um so what i would like to uh see is for our elected officials to think about
31:37when they think about raising taxes think about where that money's coming from it's coming from
31:42people like me human beings people who who have there's an impact to that and when you tell
31:51taxing authorities that they can raise the taxes by three percent they're going to do it so there's
31:58no incentive for for our elected officials to look within their own budget first before they
32:05uh put that impact on just the ordinary citizens so governor uh i can tell you that um if
32:19the in order for you to benefit from a sales tax decrease you have to have the money to buy something
32:26and if you don't have it that means it's meaningless whereas a 500 reduction uh in our property tax would
32:35be awesome and we support that great well well thanks so much so look when we're doing this stuff
32:44whether it's jay collins blaze in the senate you know me as governor uh you run you tell people what
32:50you're going to do and we all said we were going to put floridians first like there were a lot of
32:54individual issues we were talking about you know law and order uh you know fiscal responsibility we were
33:01talking about you know fighting the woke doing all the stuff and we've delivered on that more than any
33:06other state by a country mile um and but you got to just continue to be true to that and so we have an
33:13opportunity to have a debate about are we going to put our florida residents first or are we going to do
33:22something that honestly nobody has asked for uh i go around the state i travel this state more than anybody
33:28probably of all 23 plus million i probably travel to different corners of the state more than anyone
33:33first governor that's done events in all 67 counties during my first term we'll do it again this term
33:38and finish that i was just in key west the other day i'm here in tampa we're going to be all this stuff
33:43um i talk to people and you hear things and i can be in tampa i can be in pensacola i could be in miami
33:51there are things that that you will see connected right even though they're diverse different communities
33:56you will see similar you will hear similar things and you don't hear that what florida needs to succeed
34:04is one quarter of one penny of a sales tax that will benefit a lot of people because if you think
34:10about it 20 percent of our sales tax is tourists but then another big percent are businesses and
34:17non-residents and so a snowbird is not a tourist right they're non-residents they're here four months
34:23five months of the year but they're not florida residents they pay a lot of it so really the
34:28florida residents in terms of the total sales tax burden um you know is not a huge percentage i mean
34:34it may be 50 60 percent at most uh but just imagine what other state has the primary source of revenue
34:41for its government come 40 percent from from non-individual residents of the state 50 maybe depending
34:48on how you do it and i think probably the numbers with 142 million visitors i think it probably would
34:53be a lot more um in terms of that man we have such a great opportunity but uh nobody is asking to do
35:01this quarter of a penny deal um i don't i mean none of the senators support it i'm not talking have you
35:08guys talked to a single senator that supports that idea honestly a lot of the house members don't support it
35:13either but the way the house is run you know they threaten you they they take away your committee
35:18they do all that and so it's basically you know run with those types of tactics and so a lot of them
35:24don't speak now i would say sometimes you know leadership has costs and you should be courageous and be
35:30willing to do right even if there's going to be retribution against you i mean imagine if i had taken the
35:35position during covid we weren't going to have the state be open because i was getting attacked mercilessly every day
35:41then the state would have failed so obviously you know i had to take the hits on behalf of the people
35:45i'm totally willing to do that that goes with the territory when you lead they're going to come after
35:50you uh when you're standing on principle there's a lot of people that don't like that i mean you're
35:55going to get hit uh but what happens is is that courage is contagious and you know you can see it in
36:00the senate with guys standing out you see that in other when other legislative bodies do it but i think
36:06this is a very clear contrast between doing policy that will benefit the people we represent that's
36:13consistent with what we campaigned on or going in a tangent that is not going to help people in any
36:19meaningful way that are florida residents but will put the final nail in the coffin of any hope
36:25to do property tax relief and that's not what they ran on when they asked for your vote in 2022 and 2024 and
36:33even before that so let's get this right let's make sure that we have a a good budget and florida first
36:41tax policies okay with that i'll take some questions questions one sir is do you have a specific proposal
36:49that you're making today is there something that you know you can promise hard and fast that you're
36:53going to fight for well we put out many months ago a proposal depending on the level of of money that
37:00that they want to dedicate to property tax relief that we could deliver rebates between 250 to a thousand dollars per homesteaded floridium
37:11it's also the case that having money that is not being frittered away to help the canadians on on the margin
37:20all of that in future years that revenue that we get from the from the tourists and the non-residents that can go help with a property tax
37:30transition because we have some rural counties they like the tampa bay area like pinellas county tampa you
37:37have visitors you know you can do things i mean i think reduce expenditures the first one but you can
37:42shift burdens to them in other ways um it may not be as easy in some of the rural areas and so what i've said
37:48is it's totally reasonable for us running big surpluses to to help some of those rural counties you know in a
37:57transition period if it means giving major relief to their residents in terms of property taxes so i
38:02think that there's a lot a lot that can be done but i think even apart from our proposals which we did put
38:07out many months ago um this one quarter of a penny it really does kill property tax going property tax
38:15relief going forward because the people that propose this are going to turn around and tell you
38:20ah we just can't we can't afford it we don't have enough re you don't have enough money to be able to do it
38:25it's just not going to work and all that that will happen you can see this i mean you see what's doing so
38:32why would we want to foreclose the idea and the possibility of major property tax relief even in a ballot
38:40initiative next year just simply because you're doing a one quarter of a penny that's going to be geared towards
38:47tourists non-residents and our residents get 47 spread out over how many purchases i don't know
38:55uh i think the choice on that's pretty clear
38:59ballot initiatives are you concerned at all that the reforms that you've put in place
39:04would make it more difficult for even a ballot initiative that you're in favor of to get on the ballot
39:09well i think it makes it more difficult for fraudulent petitions to be submitted and
39:14i don't think whether the constitutional amendment is something i like or don't like
39:18that it should be put on the backs of fraud and we saw massive fraud uh in 2024 and that is not the
39:26way you do business this whole thing has become a cottage industry where you have well-financed
39:31special interest groups there was foreign money coming in in 2024 you had one uh weed company corporate
39:39weed company spent 141 million dollars to try to change florida's constitution so i think the reforms
39:46that were done are good government reforms uh and if there's people that are running an amendment that
39:52i happen to agree with um i don't want them to be able to do fraudulent petitions either i don't want
39:58them to be able to have misleading language on the ballot i don't want them to be able to do this in a way
40:02that is manipulating the process and that's true regardless of whether something i like or not like
40:08now i think the goal that we would have and i think blaze and jay would agree is we could have we have
40:14massive super majority of republicans in the legislature the legislature can put constitutional amendments
40:21on the ballot it doesn't have to go through citizen initiative there's basically three ways you can
40:26amend the florida constitution legislature super majorities put it on the ballot voter ratifies
40:32constitutional revision commission every 20 years they propose put it on the ballot voters ratify
40:39and then the final way is the citizen initiative which has really become a special interest initiative
40:44where they get signatures get on the ballot and then the voters ratify or not so the legislature can
40:50do this now i think one of the frustrating things and that's part of the reason why i've been
40:54concerned about what i've seen out of the house is i think they're laying the groundwork to be able to reject
41:00our call to do a ballot put something on the ballot through the legislative process i think the senate will
41:06do it we have almost a three to one majority in the house of representatives for republicans what
41:14excuse is there not to give people relief and let let citizens have a say in voting whether they want
41:20property tax relief or not but i'm concerned when you see that committee the last day of the session
41:25when you see this gambit with the one quarter of one penny uh knowing that that would be you know a
41:32big quote revenue loss and would give a pretext to say hey guys we just can't do it we know you like
41:38proper we know you need relief we want to give you relief oh we just don't have the resources we don't have
41:43the money and so you know you're basically again it's a shifting of the burden away from the tourists
41:49towards more florida residents and they will local governments if they do one quarter of a penny a lot of the
41:54local governments will fill that void anyways so it'll be it'll preclude you from getting property
41:59tax relief basically and you're probably going to end up paying the same rate in most of the counties
42:05in florida anyways i mean let's just be clear we know how all this works and so um so the question is
42:12going to be are you willing to put this on the ballot for 2026 that's something you guys should ask your
42:18state representatives are they committed to having a constitutional amendment proposed and the reason
42:25we have to do a constitutional amendment because under florida's constitution the millage rates all this
42:30stuff is vested in local governments it's not vested in the state government and we have a tangential
42:37role with the required local effort but but this is basically a local issue and so that's why you would
42:42need to make a constitutional change just just like you have homestead and there's so many things that
42:49you can do that would be really really meaningful um you know my view is is like you know you you know you
42:55have someone like kathy they own the home why are we continuing to tax them you know it's like you go buy a tv
43:01from best buy you pay a sales tax you put it on your wall and then you watch it you don't keep paying taxes
43:08on it indefinitely so why is this something that that we think is okay but even things like blaze is
43:13talking about much more generous homestead exemption would be helpful i mean this is not good enough for
43:19where the property values are there's so many things that i think would make a real difference in the lives
43:25of floridians and it's not just in florida this is a nationwide issue where people that have more
43:30residential mortgages they pay more in property tax and insurance than they do on the principal and
43:37interest on their mortgages it used to be the opposite principal interest was the main payment
43:42a little bit of taxes a little bit of insurance now you've seen that change and you've had massive
43:47increases in property taxes and insurance in other states cnbc just did an analysis since 21 they found
43:55that utah had the highest um increase um in that i mean florida we were i mean a lot of people thought
44:02florida would be would be higher i think they had us ranked like 10th or 11th and we had six major
44:06hurricanes in the last seven years um the reforms we've done have moderated there's still you know
44:11it's there's there's more i think that that i'd like to see done uh but but the reality is
44:18you can't control the price of a home the government can it's a market right on insurance like we got
44:24rid of some things that were driving up costs the litigation but ultimately that's a market too
44:30the one thing that is purely subject subject to political control is taxes that's not market based
44:39that's we the people deciding how we want to do this what powers do you want to give the government
44:45to be able to tax your property and your homes and you have the ability to change that through the
44:51through a constitutional amendment so i think it'd be really exciting and i think you'd get a lot of support
44:56can i jump in on this can i jump in guys i just want a couple of things and i want to piggyback off
45:00what the governor is saying because i think this is important important context the first thing is
45:05that we do have a super majority uh and that is a uh governing mandate that is the voters telling
45:12everyone that we like what you are doing we want you to continue what we are doing and by us not doing
45:19substantial reforms keeping up with what we were doing with a super majority in the legislature that is
45:26plain missed opportunities okay and the missed opportunities that we're missing amongst a lot of
45:32other things are delivering property tax relief reform here's the deal everyone in this room raise your
45:38hand would you rather have property tax relief over sales tax relief almost everyone we talk to in
45:43the legislature would rather have property tax relief than sales tax relief here's some numbers for you
45:50this is the way our current um property tax uh exemption structure works your first 25 000 of your property
45:59taxes are exempt your next 25 000 is taxed your third um exemption is another 25 000 exemption but the
46:10school boards have an exemption from an exemption so you really don't have 50 000 worth of property tax
46:16exemptions on average you have about 39 000 worth of property tax exemption and this is why it's
46:22important when homestead just explain to someone like when you say exemption what does that mean you're
46:28not you're not taking away school funding on the second uh on the second property tax exemptions you
46:33have 25 that's exempted the next 25 is taxed and then the 25 on top of that um you have an exemption but we
46:42hold schools harmless we don't take away their funding on that exemption but when you blend it
46:46all in you're at around 39 000 why is this important when property taxes um when homestead
46:53was initially instituted um because of the value of the homestead the first one at 25 000 compared to
46:59the median price of a home about a third of your property 33 percent of your property was shielded from
47:07taxation today with property tax with uh values being so high it's about nine percent and people
47:14are feeling this and this is why this is important and this is why people lobby me they lobby senator
47:19collins they lobby the governor on property tax relief and not sales tax relief is because they feel
47:24it when they pay their mortgage when they see the auto draft coming out from their banks and they see
47:30that they not only have to pay for the new tax bill but they have to catch up for the last tax bill
47:35they see it coming out if property tax reform in any form increasing the homestead exemption whether
47:42it's double tripling or eliminating it will mark my words it will pass and i think the governor agrees
47:47with me with 75 of the votes then why is a super majority not delivering property tax relief now
47:55that is frustrating here's another thing that everyone needs to understand and the governor knows
47:59is we've had this conversation is that if we get structural property tax reform on the ballot
48:05in 2026 people are not going to feel that until 2027 because it has to be voted on it then has to
48:12be implemented people are going to pay their tax bills in 25 and 26. what happens over the next two
48:18years people are hurting now they need property tax relief now the governor what this governor is saying
48:24is that if we are going to spend money on tax cuts let's deliver it to florida families a florida first
48:31tax cut so they can benefit now and the next year while we get structural property tax reform on
48:39that's not only what a republican supermajority should do it's also pretty darn good governance
48:44the attorney general is legally correct those law enforcement agencies were not party to that case
49:12a judge has article 33 authority to decide cases and controversies of the parties before the court
49:20the judge does not have roving authority to set policy throughout the state or the united states of america
49:27and so he has no obligation to restrict people who were not parties to the case and this is all and so
49:35he's right on the law he has the courage to stand and do what's right even knowing he's going to get blow back
49:43and he's been very strong attorney general for the state but this raises a larger issue is it we the
49:50people that get to decide these things through the medium of elections or are there unelected lifetime appointed judges
49:57who get to run immigration policy and run military policy there's a role for the judiciary but it's to
50:04decide a case in controversy before you it's not to go outside the bounds of judicial policy a judicial role
50:12and try to enact policy the u.s supreme court just had to reel in some of these district judges because
50:18they said the president of the united states as the commander-in-chief was not able to say that you can't
50:26do transgenderism in the military excuse me president has sole authority for unit readiness good order
50:34and discipline all those things that is absolutely his judgment to make and these district judges said
50:40no the u.s supreme court had to come in and and overrule that so this is a larger issue of you have
50:47judges that just disagree with the choices that voters are making that elected officials are making
50:56not on constitutional grounds they just don't like it so they want to throw sand in the gears and we know
51:02how this happens in florida almost anything we do the left runs to the courts they try to find a liberal judge
51:10almost every time the liberal judge will rule for him and then what happens we appeal and we eventually
51:16win on appeal 90 of the time and so what this district judge is doing is she's trying to exercise authority
51:26that she does not possess fine there's parties to the case and she's rendered a decision even though it's a
51:32a flawed decision that will be appealed fine the parties of the case you can't go out and then say
51:39some sheriff and in the panhandle is somehow subject to your order they were not involved in the litigation
51:46at all so i think it i think it's appropriate pushback that he's providing the judge i think he's legally in the
51:53right on this and i think it raises the larger issue of who governs this country because i can tell
51:59you if when the founders created the constitution if if james madison and hamilton and john jay were
52:06writing in the federalist papers well under this constitution you know all the thorny issues will
52:11just be punted to the unelected judiciary uh the constitution would not have even been
52:15adopted by this country and we all know that university of florida's uh choice for the next
52:22president he's gotten some flack from uh you know christopher rufo online said highlighted some of his
52:27past stances on climate change i'm curious what you make of the selection so as i was when i was asked
52:32about this when the selection started uh i was not uh involved i haven't talked to him i trust the people
52:39that were involved in that process they were trustees that i've appointed that have uh performed exemplary for
52:44the state of florida in those capacities and uh and so so they've gone through that now there's more
52:51process that's going to happen but i will say this there can be no ambiguity i don't think anybody is
52:59going to be unclear about what the expectations are in the state of florida with respect to higher education
53:05we reject woke indoctrination we were the first state in the country to eliminate
53:11de and i from our public universities we've done more than any state to restore the mission of
53:18universities to the classical sense of what a university should be teach people to think for
53:24themselves pursue truth prepare our students to be citizens of our republic and we're proud of that
53:31and so those expectations are clear and i don't think that a candidate would have been selected who is
53:37not going to abide by those expectations and i think that you will likely see that that'll be very clear
53:44in this instance but i'll let the process play out but we have uh put a real serious stake in the ground
53:50on this and i would also note again i wasn't involved in the in the process i don't know the candidate
53:56but if we were here five years ten years ago and i told you that the president of the university of
54:03michigan was going to leave michigan to come to gainesville most people probably didn't would not
54:09think that that would be a move that someone would want to make right because michigan has traditionally
54:14been viewed as the best or one of the top two or three public universities in the entire united states of
54:20america and so it's been reported in addition to some of those statements which you know the dei stuff
54:26i disagree with those comments but i also understand when we were leading against dei we were the only
54:33state to do so it was everywhere it was the price of admission to be involved in these universities at
54:40the time we put the stake in the ground and really led the efforts now you see a couple years later
54:46trump administration is on uh full frontal against it and the the tide has shifted when we were putting
54:52the stake in the ground we were swimming against the tide but we knew what we were doing was right so
54:57i think and and i think he eliminated his dei office in michigan but i don't think that anyone would
55:05want to come to the university of florida if your goal was to pursue a woke agenda you're going to run into
55:12a brick wall here in the state of florida we're proud of what we're offering we just got ranked number
55:17one in higher education by u.s news and world report we haven't raised tuition no florida in-state
55:23tuition increases since i've been governor not one penny sixty three hundred dollars to go to these
55:29universities um and so those expectations i think have been very very clear those expectations will
55:36be followed by anybody who's in a position of leadership uh in any of our universities and i'm
55:43confident that that that's how it will shake out hey governor what is your response to some of the
55:48city and county leaders who are concerned when it comes to a reduction of property taxes not for schools
55:54but for other crucial governments we understand um and that's why we want to make sure we have the
55:59flexibility at the state level to to help uh some of the local communities who may not have the luxury
56:05of what uh miami-dade would have or pinellas or naples collier county where you can bank on tourists coming
56:14you know you can obviously look at expenditures but you can also shift the tax to the non-residents that
56:20that can be done very easily um clearly we're committed i mean i have a record we've funded education more k-12
56:28than any any governor administration in history we have the highest per pupil spending right now
56:33not that that's a guarantee of success because some of the places that have exorbitant spending
56:38have really bad results but nevertheless our commitment's been clear on that and no one's
56:43demonstrated a stronger commitment to public safety we recognize as much as we're supportive of our state
56:48agencies highway patrol florida department of law enforcement fish and wildlife they've done a great job
56:54they are a small fraction of the overall law enforcement footprint in this state we have police
56:58departments at the municipal level sheriff's departments at the county level those are important
57:02uh and those will continue to be very vital and viable um institutions in in the in the life of the
57:10people of florida so i'm confident all that stuff can be addressed in a way that is yes looking at these
57:17expenditures um for the for the counties and municipalities seeing what is what is vital what is not
57:24but also providing relief for people to be able to stay in their homes to be able to afford a home
57:30all this stuff is really really significant but um we when we've done more at the state level to bolster
57:37local law enforcement than any any administration we did thousand dollar bonuses for every sworn law
57:43enforcement and firefighter in the state of florida three years in a row we have a five thousand dollar
57:49signing bonus for new recruits into our law enforcement agents including state but also municipal and county
57:56and that's been very very successful so our commitment has been really really strong we're
58:01going to continue that commitment uh we understand quality of life is important we understand that
58:06there are services that that are really um important but i also look at some of these counties that have seen
58:12you know really dramatic increases in expenditures over the last five or six years and i asked you know
58:19did did all of a sudden you know keeping the streets safe um is that is that 40 percent more expensive
58:25all of a sudden i mean i know we've had inflation right but i think you look at that and you're like
58:29well no probably what's happened is they had a gusher of property tax revenue coming in they were able
58:35to be a little bit looser with the purse strings and so did that but i don't think you want to
58:40institutionalize that and it's the same thing really anywhere across the board look at the federal
58:44government they jacked up spending for covid and they're basically codifying that level of spending
58:51or higher and what they're discussing up there in washington dc what's wrong with going back to the
58:57spending levels before covid and locking that in that would be more sustainable for this country
59:03you know we're over 37 trillion in debt as florida has paid down debt the federal government has
59:09continued to add it so so they could do that too and i think a lot of the local governments
59:14as well okay great to see you guys take care bye bye