(The Center Square) – Property property tax relief for Floridians through $5.1 billion in a proposed sales tax cut is being sought by Gov. Ron DeSantis. 

He wants lawmakers to issue $1,000 for each of about 5.1 million homesteaded properties in the state. The rebates would be issued in December, covering state-mandated school property taxes, which he says would prevent a loss in funding for districts. 

The state House of Representatives proposed reducing the state’s sales tax from 6% to 5.25% on Wednesday. 

DeSantis added a state-level version of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency should examine local budgets to determine savings that can be passed to homeowners being hit by rising assessments on property values. 

“Of all the taxes impacting Floridians, property taxes are the most significant,” DeSantis said. “So when you’re doing proposals, whether it’s working with the Legislature, whether it’s putting something on the ballot, to me, the threshold question is the tax relief needs to be Florida first.

“We need to focus on our Florida residents and to focus on in this case, Florida homeowners, particularly our homesteaded homeowners and we need to focus our relief there.”

The second-term Republican governor and former presidential candidate said he wants a ballot initiative aimed at lower property taxes on the 2026 ballot that he says will provide “robust protections” for homeowners in the state constitution. 

He also said property taxes are an anomaly because these taxes aren’t voluntary consumption based and basically mean homeowners are paying “rent” to the government for their property, even if the mortgage is fully paid.

“I know people that bought their homes for $250,000 30 years ago and now they’re assessed at over a million dollars. That’s not something out of the ordinary,” DeSantis said. “That’s a source of wealth if you’re free and clear of the mortgage, but one of the drawbacks is in the form of property taxes and so people have seen that even with a homestead exemption that has not be enough to be able to protect people against these rising assessments.”