Arian Campo-Flores
Appearances
WSJ What’s News
Why Florida Is Considering Getting Rid of Property Tax
Home values have gone up so significantly around the country that people are seeing their property tax bills go up alongside that. And so there's been a real movement to do something about that in a number of states.
WSJ What’s News
Why Florida Is Considering Getting Rid of Property Tax
The reason is that there's been years now of building homeownership costs in Florida that have reached a point where a lot of homeowners are really clamoring for some sort of action, some sort of relief. Home values are going up. That's driving up the property tax bills for many homeowners.
WSJ What’s News
Why Florida Is Considering Getting Rid of Property Tax
Also, home insurance premiums have been going up significantly in Florida, adding to the bill for homeowners. So lawmakers and the governor are responding to this sense that homeownership costs have gotten out of control and that it's really affecting people's ability to either remain in the state or to relocate there.
WSJ What’s News
Why Florida Is Considering Getting Rid of Property Tax
These property tax increases have really affected fixed income households. A lot of them are retirees. They have finite budgets and they haven't necessarily factored in or anticipated a real significant boost in what their housing costs are.
WSJ What’s News
Why Florida Is Considering Getting Rid of Property Tax
Well, it's a big undertaking. Under Florida law and the Constitution, you wouldn't be able to eliminate, significantly overhaul the property tax system without putting a constitutional amendment on the ballot for voters to decide on.
WSJ What’s News
Why Florida Is Considering Getting Rid of Property Tax
But then there's also just the sort of the reality of what it means to entirely get rid of property taxes, because those help fund a lot of services at the local level. Local governments really depend on property taxes to fund things like the school system and police and firefighters and parks.
WSJ What’s News
Why Florida Is Considering Getting Rid of Property Tax
Some policy analysts have said that the way to make up that revenue would be to significantly increase the sales tax. And that perhaps is not something that residents are going to be very happy with.