Florida and Texas are taking very different but equally high profile steps in reshaping how property taxes affect their residents. In Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Republican leaders are pushing ambitious measures that would eventually remove property taxes altogether. The package includes one thousand dollar rebate checks to be sent by the end of 2025 a five hundred thousand dollar homestead exemption and a cap on annual assessment increases at fifteen percent. If fully implemented Florida could become the only state in the nation with neither property tax nor income tax but critics warn that the lost revenue will need to be made up elsewhere.
Property taxes in Florida have soared in recent years with average bills rising by nearly forty eight percent between 2019 and 2024. These taxes provide about fifty billion dollars annually funding schools counties and municipalities across the state. Analysts caution that eliminating them would force lawmakers to raise the sales tax from six percent to as high as twelve percent shifting the burden onto everyday purchases and hitting low and middle income households hardest. Voters already approved Amendment 5 which ties homestead exemptions to inflation starting in 2025 but the expected savings for households average only about twenty dollars over five years while local governments could lose hundreds of millions of dollars.
Texas by contrast is not pursuing abolition but rather gradual reform. In 2023 voters approved amendments that increased the school property tax exemption to one hundred thousand dollars and added new exemptions for childcare providers and specific machinery. Texans will vote again in November 2025 on whether to raise the homestead exemption further to one hundred forty thousand dollars along with additional protections for veterans and elderly homeowners. While these measures provide relief they keep property taxes intact as a central funding tool for schools and local governments.
The debate in Florida and Texas highlights the tension between tax relief and fiscal responsibility. One state is gambling on a radical shift toward consumption based revenue while the other is applying measured adjustments to ease the burden without dismantling the system. The choices made in the coming months will not only reshape budgets but also define how families experience the costs of homeownership in two of America’s fastest growing states.