> Florida weighs ditching property taxes and sticking Canadians with the bill

Florida voters are weighing whether to scrap residential property taxes and the state's governor has a solution to that potentially huge revenue loss: tax Canadians more.

Canadians who own property in Florida describe the threats to shake them down for more money as just the latest insult in a series of them since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to power last year with a decidedly anti-Canada agenda.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has railed against property taxes, which fund local governments and the services they provide — law enforcement, fire, EMS, disaster preparation and mosquito control, among many others — equating them to a form of modern-day feudalism where homeowners must "pony up money to the government just for the courtesy of using your own property."

To end this, DeSantis is pushing Amendment 3, a ballot measure crafted by his Republican statehouse allies that will be put to voters in the midterm election next month.

If passed, Florida "homesteaders," as permanent residents are called, will see a dramatic increase in an existing property tax exemption.

Any Floridian with a primary residence valued at $250,000 US or less — about 60 per cent of all homesteaders, according to the governor's office, although that figure has been questioned — would pay nothing and those with a home worth more than that would pay much less than they do now. The measure also calls on the state to eliminate homesteader property taxes entirely over time.

This constitutional amendment requires a 60 per cent supermajority, and at least one recent poll suggests it will easily clear that hurdle.

State economists project such a move will cost about $12 billion US annually, forcing local and county governments that depend on these taxes to make deep cuts, find new revenue elsewhere or both.

That's where things could get more expensive for the Canadians who own an estimated $60 billion US worth of property in the Sunshine State. DeSantis has explicitly described them as a resource to tap to close expected budget gaps.

"We need to focus on our Florida residents. And focus on, in this case, Florida homeowners, particularly our homesteaded homeowners, and we need to focus the relief there," DeSantis said at a news conference last year defending his call for lower property taxes instead of a sales tax cut.

"I want Canadian tourists and Brazilian tourists subsidizing the state and making it so Florida residents pay less taxes. I don't want to give Canadians a tax cut."

In an interview with Fox Business in June, DeSantis said that while homesteader property tax revenue will be a fraction of what it once was if the measure passes, Canadian property owners won't see any of that relief, which could help pad local coffers.

"They tax property that is non-homestead: residential, Airbnb, Canadian snowbirds, commercial. That's a lot of money that they have," DeSantis said of local and county governments.

While reducing taxes for Floridians, the ballot measure also dictates that the assessed value of a non-homesteaded property — owned by a Canadian or another non-resident — can increase by up to 5 per cent a year, steadily raising the revenue local governments can collect.

"They are going to start getting more revenue from existing taxes without having to add new taxes and they're going to end up in a very stable situation very shortly," DeSantis said.

DeSantis has routinely poked at Canada — including its perennially losing hockey teams. He initially mocked the trade war-induced travel boycott, saying he didn't think it would meaningfully materialize, only to see his state tourism bureau report a double-digit drop in Canadian arrivals last year.

Some Canadians who have put down seasonal roots in the state have had enough of the taunts.

Glenn McGill of Wiarton, Ont., has been wintering in North Fort Myers, Fla., a community once well-populated with fellow Canadian sunseekers, for the last 15 years.

But after Trump's second win there's been what he describes as a "stampede" of Canadians out of the park he and his wife Deb long thought of as a second home.

He says there are only four Canadians left in the sprawling retirement community, a fraction of what there once was when he first started going south.

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McGill said DeSantis's threat to lean on Canadians to make up for lost property tax revenue will only drive more of them away, including himself — he listed his home for sale.

"They're a greedy bunch of SOBs," McGill said in an interview with CBC News. "They want to drive Canadians out."

"Those who are well off really don't care but we're not rich, we're not broke, we can do the Florida thing comfortably, but starting to pay extra taxes — that would hurt," he said.

"And this political thing with Trump, I've had enough of it."

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https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/florida-p … -9.7366814