U.S.|How Florida’s Dream of Ever-Lower Taxes Flew Too Close to the Sun

For Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida, there is something fundamentally unfair about the concept of property taxes.

“You buy a home, you pay off the mortgage, and yet, you still have to write a check to the government every year — just for the privilege of living on your own private property,” Mr. DeSantis said in a speech last year. “Is the property yours, or are you just renting it from the government?”

In recent weeks, Mr. DeSantis has been at the center of a topsy-turvy drama over the future of property taxes in Florida as he has tried to reduce the burden of soaring tax bills for homeowners. But a proposed constitutional amendment that emerged from those efforts has been met with considerable pushback, most notably from some of his fellow Republicans, including local officials faced with billions in lost revenue that would force them to cut services.

Now, even Mr. DeSantis is backing away from the proposal, which is set to appear on the November ballot. The backlash reflects the real-world budgetary challenges that come with one of the Republican Party’s core beliefs — that taxes should be lower.

Property taxes, which tend to fund local services, have come under particular scrutiny of late, as Republican state lawmakers around the country search for new strategies to address the affordability crisis.

Mike Fasano, the tax collector for Pasco County, Fla., is a lifelong Republican and a DeSantis fan. But if the proposal passes, he says, it will have a “devastating impact on our county, and counties throughout the state.”