Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he is working to place a proposal on the ballot that would eliminate property taxes for homeowners, outlining a timeline and describing the state’s financial position as he continues discussions with lawmakers.

DeSantis indicated that the proposal would need to move quickly in order to meet ballot deadlines.

“You have to do it by probably the beginning of August, for sure. I think we'll do it in advance of that, but it's got to get printed on the ballot, and so the deadline would probably be the end of July, but I'd like to do it before then, for sure,” he said.

The governor said recent developments in legislative work have cleared the way for more focused negotiations on the proposal.

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“But now that we've got the maps done, now that they have a budget outline agreed to. They still gotta go and do and color in some of the lines there, but really, the property tax is what we have to do, right? And so now the negotiations are going to get a little bit more real,” DeSantis said.

The proposal would apply to Florida homeowners, and DeSantis acknowledged that lawmakers are weighing how the change would affect new residents and local governments.

He raised questions about how quickly new arrivals would benefit from the elimination of property taxes.

“I've got a number of ways to do it because, you know, I get asked questions, and they're good questions. It's like, okay, yeah, I'm a homestead, but should someone from New York be able to move the day after the election? All of a sudden, they don't pay? I think they should pay for a time, right? I mean, like, why would we want to incentivize, and so you have these helping out local governments in the transition period,” he said.

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DeSantis said the plan could include provisions designed to support local governments, including rural areas and school districts, during a transition away from property tax revenue.

“I'm for it, rural governments, school districts, all these things,” he said.

The governor pointed to Florida’s financial condition as a factor in pursuing the proposal.

“We've got a massive surplus in Florida. We're spending less money this year than we did last year and last less money last year than the year before,” DeSantis said.

He also cited reductions in the state’s debt during his time in office.

“We've paid off 50% of the state's debt just in my seven years, 180 years of a state, all the debt accumulated gone half of it in seven years because of good fiscal stewardship,” he said.

DeSantis said those factors provide an opportunity to move forward with the plan.

“So we have an opportunity to do this,” he said.

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