Op-Ed: DeSantis Is Right to Kill Property Taxes—It’s Time to Lead the Pack

Governor Ron DeSantis is doing what most politicians only talk about: dismantling the tax-and-steal state, one layer at a time.

His recent push to abolish property taxes in Florida is more than smart policy—it’s a declaration of economic freedom. It sends a clear message to businesses, families, and freedom-minded Americans across the country: Florida is open for liberty.

Florida already thrives without a state income tax, and now DeSantis is going for the jugular—ending the most immoral form of taxation still standing in America: the property tax.

While Florida does not have an estate tax or inheritance tax, it does have a 0.71 percent effective property tax rate on owner-occupied housing value, which is reassessed each year on January 1st. According to data tracked by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, home values in Florida have steadily increased, going back as far as this statistic has been tracked—1975, with just one notable exception. That exception was during and immediately following the national housing collapse that began in 2007. Values started to increase again just four years later when the market recovered in 2012.

This means that for 45 of the past 50 years, homeowners’ taxes on homes they’ve already purchased have continually increased.

Think about it. You never truly own your home. Miss a few payments to the government, and they’ll seize your property. That’s not freedom—that’s rent to the state. Property taxes are nothing more than a relic of feudalism, a tool used to keep working-class Americans tethered to an ever-growing government.

It’s true that property taxes in Florida still rank below the national average, which currently stands at 0.90%, and as a result, the median annual property tax bills in the Sunshine State follow suit, as its $2,386 mark is about $600 cheaper than the U.S. median. But simply being “cheaper” isn’t necessarily good because these costs still negatively impact Florida residents. Especially in today’s economy, where citizens are already stretched thin, financially speaking, by higher overall costs than we faced in previous years, which are caused largely by the Biden administration’s failed fiscal policies.

You can retire. You can pay off your mortgage. But if you stop paying property taxes, the government comes for your land. That’s not just theft—it’s tyranny.

From a pro-liberty perspective, property taxes violate the very foundation of individual liberty and private property rights. If true ownership is the cornerstone of a free society, then no government has the moral authority to charge citizens for the right to live on land they’ve already purchased.

These taxes create a cycle of dependence, forcing families to make economic decisions based not on freedom, but on appeasing their local tax assessors. They empower bureaucrats to control how land is used, developed, or even retained within families from one generation to the next.

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