Florida's property tax collections nearly doubled in seven years – from $32 billion to $60 billion – while working families watched their bills climb every single year.
Now Ron DeSantis is fighting to put $250,000 back in homeowners' pockets tax-free, and the Wall Street Journal just called it a "progressive" scheme.
DeSantis fired back Wednesday – and he dismantled the argument piece by piece.
The WSJ Breaks With the Governor
The Journal's editorial board called it a "shame" that DeSantis is using his final months in office to push what they labeled a poorly designed ballot measure steering Florida toward a "progressive property tax regime."
Their concern is burden-shifting – the argument that shrinking the homestead tax base forces local governments to squeeze businesses and second-home owners harder to make up the difference.
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It is also the exact argument local governments and their lobbyists have made every single time Florida has ever considered giving homeowners a break.
DeSantis pointed out exactly that.
"Florida hasn't raised the homestead exemption outright since 1980," he said, "and the last partial exemption increase was enacted almost 20 years ago."
Both times, opponents ran the same playbook.
Both times, the sky didn't fall.
What the Proposal Actually Does
If Florida voters approve the measure in November by at least 60 percent, the homestead exemption rises from $50,000 to $150,000 in 2027, then to $250,000 in 2028 – with a framework for further increases tied to the Consumer Price Index.
For some homeowners, that wipes out non-school property taxes entirely.
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DeSantis has been direct about who benefits most.
"Very little benefit for somebody that's super-wealthy," he said in Brooksville, "really good benefit for somebody that maybe bought a house three or four years ago for $350,000."
That is the part the Journal called "progressive."
DeSantis rejected the label while accepting the math – the measure is designed, by his own description, to deliver outsized relief to middle-class and working-class Floridians.
"It applies to all FL homesteads, modest to extravagant," he said.
The Corporatist Right Problem
Here is what is actually happening.
The Wall Street Journal editorial page speaks for a specific constituency – one that wants stable revenue streams for the municipalities and institutions that protect existing wealth.
That is not the same constituency as the Floridian who bought in Pasco County five years ago and has watched his bill climb 40 percent.
DeSantis named it plainly – the Journal is "defending bloated local budgets and opposing property tax relief for Florida homeowners."
The Numbers the Journal Didn't Mention
Florida's local governments collected roughly $32 billion in property taxes in 2019.
By 2026, that number hit approximately $60 billion – a near-doubling in seven years.
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Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia put it plainly: "Taxpayers are sick and tired of their local governments taxing and spending, crying poor, saying they don't have the money and then come back to you as an endless ATM asking for more, more, more."
The same governments warning that DeSantis' proposal will gut services are the ones who nearly doubled their take without a single vote of the people.
The burden already shifted – years ago, onto the backs of Florida homeowners.
DeSantis is trying to shift it back.
Your property tax bill has gone up every single year while your county commission hired more staff, built new facilities, and told you there wasn't enough money.
They nearly doubled their take in seven years.
Now they're hiding behind the Wall Street Journal.
Sources:
- Ron DeSantis, "Save Our Homes from Excessive Property Taxes," Executive Office of the Governor, May 2026.
- "Senate Passes Historic Property Tax Cut for Florida Homeowners," Florida Senate Press Release, June 2, 2026.
- "Florida Property Tax Proposal: 2026 Details & Analysis," Tax Foundation, June 2026.
- "Florida's Big Question: If Property Taxes Vanish, What Happens to Everything Else?" Central Florida Times, June 6, 2026.
- "Ron DeSantis Says Legislators Diluted 'the Most Transformational Property Tax Proposal' in U.S. History," Florida Politics, June 10, 2026.
