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Florida Lawmaker Pushes Bold Plan to Roll Back and Eliminate Property Taxes

The Florida Legislature will hear numerous bills to eliminate property taxes in its January session. One state representative from Central Florida is determined to do more, proposing solutions for what happens after, and how the state of Florida will continue to have enough revenue to provide services.

State Representative Ryan Chamberlin (R – Belleview) wants to tackle the issue head on, starting with his bill in the state legislature. “It’s a numbers game, and we’re smart enough as a group and as a team to figure this out.” He’s filed HB 149 (https://www.flhouse.gov/Sections/Bills/billsdetail.aspx?BillId=82675) proposing to limit property taxes to 2022-2023 levels for all local governments.

“Our property taxes have gone up 45% across the state over the last four or five years, 82% in some counties” Chamberlin tells Pulp City Magazine. “I don’t think that’s the number we should be replacing.” Chamberlin says a rate rollback has been done before, citing when Marco Rubio was the Speaker of the Florida House. If you’ve been in Florida long enough, you probably remember then Governor Charlie Crist talking about property taxes, saying “drop ‘em like a rock”! Property taxes continued to increase over the years, so has the tax burden, home exemption or not. “Everyone in Florida right now is being taxed on their equity, not on what they paid for the property, but what it’s gained in value.”

Rolling back property taxes is the first step of what Chamberlin calls the Freedom 1-2-3 plan. After a rollback of rates, the voters can choose to eliminate property taxes, but Chamberlin knows eliminated revenue be replaced. Government spending has increased as Chamberlin has complained about, but the two biggest costs cannot be reversed or eliminated. Because of inflation, costs of goods governments must buy to function have increased far above the rate of inflation, and the cost of paying law enforcement and fire rescue has exploded exponentially.

“I’m proposing we come up with two safety fees that would more than cover everything you just mentioned” Chamberlin tells Pulp City Magazine. First, the state would levy a five percent fee on every real estate transaction. “It’s going to raise $12 billion” Chamberlin says, but the buyer will pay. “That means when you buy a home, you would now need to come up with $15,000 at closing or add it into your amount financed, however you want to do it, but it would finance that it would raise your payment by $75 to $100 a month, but that’s a one-time hit rather than being taxed $3,000 to $5,000 a year the rest of your life.” This is a point Chamberlin and supporters will make over and over during the next year. Property tax means that as long as a new tax bill is due every year, you essentially rent your property from the government rather than own it.

The second part of raising revenue will be a five percent safety fee on three categories of travel: 1) hotels and vacation rentals like Air B&Bs. 2) rental cars and ride sharing services like Uber and Lyft, and 3) amusement park sales. Chamberlin claims this will raise $4 billion dollars a year to help fund local public safety, police, and fire, capitalizing on the 140 million visitors a year coming to Florida. “Roughly 20 to 35% of all transactions in the state of Florida are being done by people that don’t even live here.” says Chamberlin, adding that he wants to make sure that the local police and fire departments are funded.

Lastly, property taxes make up a large portion of the money given to school districts every year. To make up for this funding, Chamberlin is proposing a sales tax increase of as much as three percent across the entire state. That would make the sales tax rate 9.5% in Orange County, 10% in Seminole, and 10.5% in Osceola. Chamberlin says the rate increase would raise $20 billion statewide for schools. “I want to get the schools paid for by everybody in the state, not just the homeowners” says Chamberlin.

These numbers do not add up to what local governments are currently spending. They are much closer to the numbers from 2022-2023, meaning something would still have to be cut somewhere.

The Tax Foundation, an independent, nonprofit international research think tank based in Washington, D.C., does not agree with Chamberlin’s calculations. The organization sent out a press release opposing any of the proposals to eliminate property taxes. “We estimate that the statewide average sales tax rate would have to rise from 7.02 to 15.34 percent to replace the property tax, even without accounting for any reduction in taxable sales due to the high rate” states Jesse Solis, Communications Director for The Tax Foundation. “If counties, municipalities, school districts, and other local taxing authorities were each responsible for replacing the revenue with their own local taxes, actual rates would vary widely.” Sales tax rates in Osceola, Orange, and Seminole counties all already differ.

With several competing proposals, Representative Chamberlin knows he must listen and potentially make some changes. “I want it to be debated because I’m looking for the best solution for Florida people.”

Some of those proposals will involve only homesteaded properties, those permanently occupied by the homeowner or their dependents. That definition excludes rental properties and businesses, something Chamberlin is not eager to embrace. “Yes, there’s some big companies, but I’m thinking about the guy that’s owned the pizza shop for 40 years that’s still paying property taxes on his little pizza shop. I don’t want him to do that anymore. He’s paid into the system enough.”

A slew of bills will be debated, and Pulp City Magazine will continue to follow up on those make it through the Legislature. Voters will ultimately decide on the proposals, perhaps as early as November of 2026.

Mike Synan Senior Reporter

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Mike Synan has been a politics reporter in Central Florida since 1998, covering everything from Conventions to executions. He is the winner of the Edward R Murrow award for outstanding journalism, and has won multiple awards from the Associated Press. He currently publishes www.newsassignmentdesk.com. You can reach Mike Synan at msynan@sportsmail.com