May 30, 2026
A political idea usually associated with the left is finding a new home in the Sunshine State.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani made headlines this spring by pushing a pied-à-terre tax on luxury second homes, which the New York State Legislature recently passed, targeting the city’s wealthiest property owners to close a budget gap.
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Now, from the opposite end of the political spectrum, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is proposing something that reaches a surprisingly similar destination by a very different route: shifting more of the property tax burden onto the state’s ultrawealthy homeowners — while effectively zeroing it out for everyone else.
On May 27, DeSantis called a special legislative session beginning June 1 to consider a constitutional amendment he dubbed “Save Our Homes From Excessive Property Taxes.”
Bloomberg notes the proposal would raise Florida’s homestead exemption — which protects part of a primary residence’s assessed value from taxation — from its current $50,000 to $250,000, and ultimately to $500,000.
At $250,000, DeSantis says about 60% of homesteaded Floridians would owe no property taxes at all. At $500,000, that figure rises to 92%, Fox 29 reports.
The rich pay more — by design
The math of the proposal is straightforward: Most Florida homes simply aren’t worth enough to be taxed once the exemption rises. That leaves the tax burden concentrated on the state’s most expensive properties — the $25 million Palm Beach estates, the billionaire compounds and the pricey second homes of seasonal residents who spend just a few months a year in Florida.
“In Palm Beach, they’re sitting on a gold mine,” DeSantis stated at a news conference. “They’ve got all these people who live there three months of the year and they buy $25 million homes. That should be your tax base.”
It’s a framing that closely echoes Mamdani’s own logic, though DeSantis arrives at it through tax relief for the majority rather than explicit tax hikes on the few.
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Thomas Brosy, a senior researcher at the Tax Policy Center, told Bloomberg that the DeSantis plan “could actually in practice be a way for taxing the rich” if local governments respond by moving their remaining tax burden to the highest-value properties.
For example, billionaire Ken Griffin, who was charged $10 million in 2025 Palm Beach property taxes, would remain firmly on the hook.
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The fine print
To pass, the constitutional amendment would need supermajority approval from 60% of both legislative chambers and then 60% of Florida voters at the November ballot.
On top of that, remaining local property tax revenue would be limited to core services like schools, police and fire, and a state trust fund could provide grants to counties that can’t bridge the fiscal gap, according to Bloomberg.
Those new to the state may need to maintain residency for up to five years before qualifying for the full exemption, a provision designed to prevent a flood of new arrivals chasing the tax break.
The concerns
Some local officials are openly skeptical. George Kruse, a Republican on the Manatee County Commission, told Bloomberg that his county — where the median home sale price sits around $422,000 — would have to start charging for things that are currently free.
“We can do things like park fees, boat launch fees,” he said. “Our buses are currently free, but we’d have to start charging bus fees — and that starts hitting the very people we’re trying to help.”
Kruse also warned that police departments could face budget pressure.
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“That five-year-old police cruiser will have to stick around for a few more years,” he told Bloomberg.
But there’s deeper fiscal concern beyond annual budgets.
Florida’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research estimates a $1.5 billion state deficit in fiscal year 2027-2028 if current spending patterns hold — which raises real questions about how long a trust fund backstop could last.
A prior version of the property tax overhaul passed the Florida House in February but died in the Senate over rural county concerns, with the Revenue Estimating Conference projecting local government losses of $4.4 billion in its first year, growing to $13.3 billion annually, NBC Miami reports.
And if public services erode in less affluent counties, home values could follow.
“Public services get baked into the value of a home,” Joel Berner, senior economist at Realtor.com, told Bloomberg. “If you don’t have those things, your home isn’t worth the same amount.”
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With a writing and editing career spanning over 15 years, Emma creates and refines content across a broad spectrum of industries, including personal finance, lifestyle, travel, health & wellness, real estate, beauty & fitness and B2B/SaaS/tech.
