As property taxes continue to rise in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis has a bold new proposal to eliminate property taxes altogether.

But is this a realistic approach, and what would happen to services that need those financial resources?

We are joined now by Luke is professor of real estate at Florida Gulf Coast University.

Doctor Shelton weeks to investigate a potential future without property taxes.

Doctor weeks, thank you for joining us.

Thank you for having me.

So the governor's proposal was met with some skepticism.

My understanding is the state brings in about $43 billion in property tax revenue.

What happens if that system changes?

I think the first thing that we have to determine is what's going to replace that revenue source, because as you said, it's a very significant source of revenue.

And we either have to replace that or we'll have to look at the services that the government provides and potentially eliminate some of those.

So we were speaking earlier.

You said there's really just three main ways of collecting taxes, but the implications of switching from one to another, let's say going to sales tax.

The implications really hit people differently.

So let's go over that.

Absolutely.

So when we think about the three options that we have, there's property tax which is what's on the table right now.

Then there's sales tax or a state income tax.

And when we look at those three options you know they really have different implications for different parts of our society.

So when we think about making a move away from property tax to a straight sales tax, one of the issues you have to be concerned with there is that a sales tax tends to be very regressive, meaning that it's going to put a significantly higher burden on lower income individuals who would have to spend more of their income for things like groceries and things like that, that would be taxed.

And as a result, it may make it a bit less affordable in a state for those folks.

What's the benefit to the sales tax?

Well, the benefit is then we can tie it all to consumption, which, when you look at it on the surface, sounds okay.

That sounds fair, right?

You only pay for sort of things that you are consuming and using.

But when you dig a little bit deeper, we have to think about, okay, what does that really mean when we say that everybody's going to pay this same sales tax for all the items they consume in the state?

I believe the governor mentioned, right.

Taxing tourists.

This is a way to tax tourists more heavily.

Sure.

We have a lot of folks that come here and spend a lot of money every year, and that really helps our economy.

So we could shift a good portion of the burden to those visitors by going to a sales tax.

But we have to realize when we do that, that makes vacationing in Florida more expensive.

They've got other alternatives.

So how how much it impacts that affordability of vacationing in Florida would be something that has to be considered before we make that type of move.

The next thing you mentioned was the income tax.

Yes.

And a lot of folks, I think, would be very upset if we were to say that this is going to prompt us to have to bring an income tax to Florida.

One of the things that attracts a lot of folks here is the fact that we don't have an income tax.

The impact to, I'm thinking to like school districts, right, who rely and local governments who certainly rely on the way we tax now.

I mean, how big do you think the implications would be for, for smaller governments?

Well, the the degree of the implications really would hinge on how effective we are in replacing that revenue stream and the method that we're going to use to collect that.

We've got a system in place right now that works pretty well when you look at education, the way we fund it in the state of Florida, moving away from that, we would have to ensure that the revenue generation is on par with what we currently have.

And we'd also have to look at how that shakes out, moving from a property tax to a sales tax, because there'll be some variation across the state based on just the way those counties are inhabited and the amount of retail activity that takes place in the different counties.

So Professor Weeks, Florida is one of just eight states that that doesn't levy a state income tax.

Can you see Floridians wanting to change that?

Now, I think it'd be very unlikely that Floridians would embrace the introduction of a state income tax.

And if you look at what's happened in other states where they have state income tax, many of those are states that are losing population.

You look at the situation they have in California, where the highest marginal state income tax got to over 13%, and that prompted a lot of wealthier individuals to exit the state.

And Florida was the beneficiary of a lot of that migration out of California.

So a lot of folks coming here just because specifically they won't have to pay an income tax coming to the state of Florida.

Correct.

And you were looked at some some data, and it shows that the the impact of taxes right now compared to other states is a lot less here.

Sure.

When we look at the total tax burden for the state of Florida, it is very low.

So it's a little over 6%.

The total tax burden on average in Florida.

And that's a very good number in terms of not having a higher burden.

Some states are more than twice that.

Doctor Shelton Weekes, thank you so much for joining us.

We appreciate it.

Thank you for having me.