TALLAHASSEE, Florida (PNN) - February 24, 2025 - The governor of Florida - Ron DeSantis - says he wants to end the most odious of all taxes, that applied as rent that a “homeowner” must pay in order to avoid being evicted from what isn’t his home - even if he paid off the mortgage - by dint of that fact.
The tax is odious for that reason alone - in that it means a person will never own his or her home, no matter how many decades he/she pays rent and no matter how much he/she has had to pay over those decades. The sum can easily run to what amounts to 50% or even more of the original purchase price of the home, which is confiscatory taxation.
The argument in defense of this is that the tax is based not upon the purchase price but rather upon the “assessed value” of the home at some point after the purchase. The “assessment” being performed by agents of the same government that will evict you from what isn’t your home if you do not pay the rent styled “property taxes” based on the “assessment”. The claim is that the value of the house has increased - but the fact is this is hypothetical unless the house is sold; so what it amounts to is an unrealized capital gains tax, something almost as effronterous as applying income tax to income not earned. It is more effronterous than that because we are talking about people’s homes - the place where they live. The homes they bought based on what they could afford. The rent styled “property tax” makes the home unaffordable at some point, forcing the renters to sell and move - a form of expropriation.
One could avoid the income tax by not earning income subject to taxation. However, that is not possible when one must pay the ever-increasing rent styled “property taxes” because of the necessity to earn income as most people do not have enough savings to pay the rent without earning the income necessary to pay it. Thus most people never stop working - in order to avoid being forced out of what isn’t really their home by the entity that is really the landlord.
DeSantis is the first prominent politician to publicly agree with the above sentiments and that is what makes him unlike all the other politicians - including the “conservative” ones, who think that it is congruent with what they style “limited government” to impose endless rent that can and almost always is increased to pay for government. For “services” they will often say are “needed” or even “essential” - according to them. It does not matter to these “limited government conservatives” that using the government to force others to pay for these “services” makes them morally indistinguishable from the “big government” liberals they pretend to oppose.
After getting a threat letter in the mail from the government - the right-because-honest description of what an “assessment notice” is - that advises me the government has doubled the “assessed value” of my house and so I can expect to pay double in rent (oops, “property taxes) irrespective of the fact that I do not owe these effronterous (but cowardly) thieves anything at all, I decided to send a letter to the guy who “represents” me on the board of supervisors. As if all they did was “supervise.”
Here is what I wrote:
You may have caught the news that Governor Ron DeSantis is proposing the elimination of property taxes in Florida, pointing out - correctly - that property taxes amount to paying endless rent to the government and thus assuring a person never really owns his or her home since the “owner” can be evicted if he fails to pay the rent.
However much it increases. No matter how much he has paid.
I’d very much like to see Virginia do the same thing but if that is not politically possible, I think it’s entirely reasonable that a limit be placed on these taxes so that people can at least hope that - one day - they will no longer have to pay rent to the government just to be allowed to keep the homes for which they paid.
I think that a fair limit ought to be about 20% of the purchase price of the home, which is more than a “fair share” as taxes are often described. It is arguably confiscatory to demand that anyone pay more than that. The 20% could be paid in a lump sum at time of purchase or incrementally (folded into the mortgage/escrow as is current practice) until paid.
After which the obligation is satisfied.
I suggest this as a reasonable way to deal with what is becoming truly obnoxious taxation that is going to push many people out of their homes and even those who are able to pay these exorbitant taxes will end up paying 30%-40% (or even more) of the original sales prices of their homes in property taxes.
That is outrageous by any standard.
I understand that property taxes are based on assessed value rather than purchase price, but this is unjust because it amounts to a tax on unrealized capital gains. What one’s house is “worth” after one purchases it is an irrelevance if it is one’s home and one just wants to live there; and bought it because it was within his or her means at the time of purchase.
I submit that people have a right to own their homes and that there needs to be a limit on the amount of taxes they are expected to pay in order to not be evicted from their own homes.
This is just in the way of food for thought.
I’m so aggravated by these taxes I am considering speaking about them (and the above proposal) publicly, to “make the case”.
Thanks for listening.
I’ll let you know whether he did, and whether he plans to try to do anything to follow Governor DeSantis’ example. If not, I intend to get involved - because it may be the only way to end this evil business of taxing people on unrealized gains and of making us all renters-in-perpetuity, even if we have paid for what can never truly be our homes thanks to that.