Opinion: DeSantis Is Right to Kill Property Taxes—It Is Time to Lead the Pack

Governor Ron DeSantis’ recent push to abolish property taxes in Florida is more than smart policy—it is a declaration of economic freedom.

This move will send a clear message to businesses, families, and freedom-minded Americans across the country: Florida is open for liberty.

This from redstate.com.

The governor is doing what most politicians only talk about: Dismantling the tax-and-steal state, one layer at a time.

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 will seize your property. That is not freedom—that is 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.

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 have already purchased.

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.

God speed to Governor DeSantis.