You've been writing that property tax check for 18 months while Ron DeSantis promised on Fox News he was going to make it stop.
He just called a special session – and property taxes aren't on the agenda.
His own House Speaker went on television Sunday and said what Florida homeowners have been thinking: the governor has no plan.
The House Did Its Job – Then Got Left Holding the Bag
Speaker Daniel Perez isn't a Democrat. He's a Republican who passed a major property tax cut through the Florida House earlier this year – 80 to 30.
The Senate never touched it.
DeSantis didn't support it either.
"The Senate did not take it up, and the governor didn't support it," Perez said Sunday on WPLG's This Week in South Florida. "So the person who has started this conversation has kind of just been up in the air with the lack of a proposal, and time is ticking."
DeSantis dismissed the House's seven proposed constitutional amendments last fall as a "political game" and "not a serious attempt to get it done for the people."
But here's what he didn't do – produce his own plan. Not a single page of draft legislation. Not one specific number.
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His explanation? He's waiting for the moment to be "ripe."
18 Months of Promises, Zero Pages of Legislation
DeSantis started making property tax noise in early 2025.
In his State of the State address, he told Floridians they were "renting their homes from the government."
He went on Fox Business and promised full elimination for homesteaded properties.
He gave speech after speech about local governments overspending.
What he never gave anyone was an actual proposal.
Former Republican state Sen. Jeff Brandes called it: "I think the strategy is not to give people a chance to evaluate this."
DeSantis mused last fall about holding a property tax special session "right in the middle of the Republican primary season in July or August."
Translation: time the announcement for maximum political benefit, not maximum policy achievement.
One GOP state legislator texted a reporter when DeSantis announced this week's special session without property taxes: "LOL at no mention of property tax reform."
What DeSantis Is Doing Instead
Instead of a property tax proposal, DeSantis called lawmakers back to Tallahassee for redistricting, AI regulations, and expanded vaccine exemptions.
On AI, Trump has explicitly said regulations should come from the federal government, not the states. Perez agrees.
DeSantis is calling a special session to pass a state AI bill anyway – directly contradicting the president he's supposed to be aligned with.
On vaccines, Perez raised a concern most Florida parents would find reasonable: "In the middle of a measles outbreak, it's tough for me to all of a sudden allow for children in schools to not have the measles vaccine, to not have polio vaccines, to not have chicken pox vaccines."
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The House Speaker is making the common-sense argument on both issues.
DeSantis is overruling him on both.
What Happens Now
DeSantis leaves office in January.
He needs Florida voters to approve a constitutional amendment by 60% this November to eliminate homestead property taxes – the only way this promise makes his legacy.
That requires the Legislature to pass the ballot language with three-fifths support in both chambers, which requires the House and Senate agreeing on a single proposal, which requires the governor to actually produce one.
He hasn't. And the window is closing fast.
The property tax special session – if it happens at all – won't come until late May at the earliest, squeezed in after redistricting and a separate budget session to close the gap between the House's $113.6 billion proposal and the Senate's $115 billion plan.
"Time is ticking because he's out of power any day now," Perez said.
You're still writing that check.
Sources:
- Douglas Soule, "House Speaker Daniel Perez airs more frustration over missing property tax proposal," WUSF, April 21, 2026.
- A.G. Gancarski, "Special Session delayed, expanded to include congressional redistricting, AI protections, medical freedom," Florida Politics, April 15, 2026.
- Mitch Perry, "Gov. DeSantis promises Special Session on property taxes, but when?" Florida Politics, April 17, 2026.
- Jesse Scheckner, "'Where's our proposal?': Daniel Perez frustrated with inaction on property taxes by Gov. DeSantis, Senate," Florida Politics, April 20, 2026.
- A.G. Gancarski, "Ron DeSantis defends failure to produce property tax proposal he's promised for months," Florida Politics, February 19, 2026.
- Ana Goñi-Lessan and Jim Turner, "Florida's redistricting session is delayed as DeSantis adds AI and vaccines," WUSF/News Service of Florida, April 16, 2026.
