Property tax reduction referendum sought for 2026 midterms

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(The Center Square) – Voters may get a property tax reduction referendum on their 2026 midterm ballots, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday.

The second-term Republican described his attempts as “working very hard with folks.”

“You’ve got to get the language right, you’ve got to get the numbers, you’ve got to get all that,” DeSantis said. “So that will happen. It doesn’t need to be produced today and it won’t be produced today because I want to do it right.”

The idea is that homeowners should not be automatic teller machines for local government, the governor said.

The state is still trying to reduce waste and make sure government operates efficiently, the Florida version of the federal government’s Department of Government Efficiency more colloquially known as DOGE.

“We’re not done with DOGE,” DeSantis said in a press conference highlighted by his crack down in the university system on H-1B visas.

Local governments, flush with revenue from real estate values, have ramped up spending beyond the amount that would be justified by inflation or population increases, the governor said.

The language of a ballot measure to reduce property taxes is also crucial, DeSantis added.

“The Legislature has put a lot of stuff on the ballot in recent years and a lot of it has failed because they have some lawyer on staff draft something that nobody can understand," he said. "You can’t do that. You have to have good, clear language.”

In addition to providing homeowners lower property taxes, the ballot language should also include provisions to make sure that the revenue paid by commercial property owners is not wasted by local governments, the governor said.

“It should only go to education and law enforcement,” DeSantis said of property tax revenue. “It shouldn’t go to DEI and these other things.”

DEI is the acronym for policies related to diversity, equity and inclusion.

He also disagrees with Republican House Speaker Daniel Perez’s proposal to put multiple proposals on the ballot. The bills all exempt school property taxes from the cut and also prohibit local governments from cutting law enforcement funding to make up for the loss of property tax revenue.

The House proposals are “milk toast,” DeSantis said Wednesday.

“There’s not one proposal that people would get excited about, not one,” he said. “They are total half measures, which is not what people are asking for. People want to be bold.”

Placing multiple proposals on the ballot will kill all of them, the governor said.

“Different voters are going to read different things and none of them are going to receive 60%,” he said. “You have to have one amendment. It’s got to be very clearly written and give people a chance to vote for it.”