WSJ What’s News - Why Florida Is Considering Getting Rid of Property Tax

Episode Date: March 20, 2025

P.M. Edition for Mar. 20. As the costs of home ownership soar, Florida lawmakers are considering a far-reaching remedy: eliminating property taxes. WSJ economics reporter Arian Campo-Flores joins us to discuss why the state is unlikely to get rid of property taxes completely. Plus, President Trump signs an executive order seeking to abolish the Education Department. And a $6.1 billion-sale of the Boston Celtics basketball team is the biggest in the history of American sports. Alex Ossola hosts. Listen: Trump Wants to Abolish the Education Department. What Comes Next? Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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seeking to abolish the Education Department. Plus, why Florida lawmakers are considering getting rid of property taxes. Home values have gone up so significantly around the country that people are seeing their property tax bills go up alongside that. And so there's been a real movement to do something about that in a number of states.

And home sales were up last month. What's behind the rise? It's Thursday, March 20th. I'm Alex Osala for The Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. New data out today from the National Association of Realtors shows that U.S. existing home sales rose 4.2% in February from the Priger month. That was far better than economists expected and was the first month-over-month increase

in two months. Nicole Friedman, who covers the U.S. housing market for the journal, explains the rise, despite the fact that mortgage rates haven't changed much. A few years ago when rates shot up from 3% to higher than 6%. That really, really shocked the market. And buyers couldn't let go of what they could have afforded with 3% rates compared to what they could afford with rates at 6% or 7%. It was such a dramatic increase that really spooked people. But now it's been a couple of years

and rates have been hovering in this six to seven percent range. And so a lot more buyers have just realized this is the reality right now. And because they have their own life situations, their own needs to move, some people are just saying, well, that's where mortgage rates are. And I have to bite the bullet and make a purchase anyway. Well, yesterday's post-Fed rally in the markets seems to have sputtered as U.S. indexes ended the day in the red. The Nasdaq fell about 0.3%, the S&P 500 dipped about 0.2%, and the Dow fell less than a tenth

of a percent. With the markets wavering and the threat of a slowing economy, some investors are turning to a potentially safer option, dividend stocks. These are shares in companies that offer relatively hefty cash payouts, and so far this year, they're beating the broader market. Hannah Aaron-Lang, who covers markets for the journal, told our Your Money Briefing podcast why dividend stocks are so appealing right now. Dividend-paying companies, they tend to be these more mature, well-established companies

who are perhaps not so concerned with growing at such a rapid pace because they're not plugging all of the profits they earn right back into their growth efforts, for example. They've been around a while. Many of the largest dividend stocks, the allure is the stability of these firms. So you think like your Coca-Cola, your Procter and Gamble. With a dividend, you're getting some form of return on investment in spite of stock price volatility. So I would say this is considered a safer, maybe more boring slice of the stock market. But this is a type of stock that looked increasingly alluring to investors given what we've seen in 2025 so far.

To hear more from Hannah, listen to tomorrow's episode of Your Money Briefing. Coming up, why U.S. border agents are taking a more aggressive approach towards visa holders. That's after the break. Now streaming. What do you know about the happy face killer? He's my father. It's so good to see you. Now streaming. What do you know about the Happy Face killer? He's my father.

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Let's go on how you hoped. Happy Face, new series now streaming exclusively on Paramount+. Immigration officers are employing more aggressive tactics with immigrants and tourists trying to enter the United States. For more on this approach and its impact, I'm joined by WSJ White House reporter Tarini Parti. Tarini, what's new about the way border agents are approaching travelers?

Tarini Parti, WSJ White House Reporter, WSJ White House Border agents at airports and at land ports of entry are scrutinizing visas. They are frequently detaining tourists. They are being pretty aggressive in the way they question people who are coming through. This is something that we have not seen before, is what we heard from lawyers and from former immigration officials. In the past, if there were questions about someone's visa, they would be flagged, sent for more questioning. But usually they would be asked to come back with the proper paperwork or they would be held for a little while.

But what we're seeing now is long-term detention. I'm curious why this is happening now. The Trump administration, when the president first came into office, signed an executive order that called for extreme vetting of people entering the United States. The president has said that this needs to be done for national security purposes. So what we're seeing is U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, that's the agency that deals with people who are entering the country. Officers there are taking this very seriously and they're not really giving as much leeway as was considered the norm in the past.

Did you get any response from any of the other departments working on this? We heard from the Department of Homeland Security who said that the Trump administration is enforcing immigration laws and they criticized previous administrations for not doing so. We've also heard from U.S. Customs and Border Patrol about the individual cases that we went through. And they've said that if statues or visa terms are violated, travelers may be subject to detention and removal. That was WSJ White House reporter Tarini Parti. Thank you, Tarini.

Thanks so much for having me. In other news, President Trump has signed a much anticipated executive order that would begin dismantling the federal Department of Education. The order directs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to facilitate the closure of the agency to the maximum extent possible and permitted by the law. McMahon will face a number of complications in closing the department, a task she has called its final mission. Existing law doesn't allow the president to unilaterally close a department, such as education, that has been established by Congress. If you're wondering about the implications and

possible challenges to the president's moves to abolish the education department, listen to our recent episode of What's New Sunday. Trump wants to abolish the education department, what comes next? We'll put a link to that episode in our show notes. The Taliban has released American George Glezman, ending his two-year detainment. It's a diplomatic victory for President Trump that could reshape U.S. relations with Afghanistan. U.S. officials said the Taliban agreed to send Glezman back to the U.S. in exchange for improved relations with Washington, forgoing its previous demand that America hand over imprisoned Taliban members. Glezman, a mechanic for Delta Airlines,

was touring Afghanistan when the Taliban seized him in December 2022. Tesla is recalling most cyber trucks, more than 46,000 vehicles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said a cosmetic part over the left and right windows can detach from the vehicle, which the agency said could create a road hazard

for motorists. The agency said Tesla isn't aware of any collisions, fatalities, or injuries related to the issue and that Tesla will replace the parts free of charge. This is the eighth recall issued on the Cybertruck, which Tesla first released in 2023. In Florida, it's becoming very, very expensive to own a home. With home prices rising and property taxes soaring, homeowners are feeling the strain. Florida's leaders are considering a far-reaching remedy for that—ditching property taxes. A full repeal is unlikely to happen soon, but the idea is gaining political traction.

WSJ economics reporter Ariane Campoflores is here to tell us more. Ariane, I mentioned the financial strain that homeowners are under in Florida. Why are lawmakers now looking to get rid of property taxes? The reason is that there's been years now of building homeownership costs in Florida that have reached a point where a lot of homeowners are really clamoring for some sort of action, some sort of relief. Home values are going up. That's driving up the property tax bills

for many homeowners. Also, home insurance premiums have been going up significantly in Florida, adding to the bill for homeowners. So lawmakers and the governor are responding to this sense that homeownership costs have gotten out of control and that it's really affecting people's ability to either remain in the state or to relocate there.

Who's feeling that strain most? These property tax increases have really affected fixed income households. A lot of them are retirees. They have finite budgets, and they haven't necessarily factored in or anticipated a real significant boost in what their housing costs are. So you write that a full repeal of property taxes is unlikely. Why is that?

Well, it's a big undertaking. Under Florida law and the Constitution, you wouldn't be able to eliminate, significantly overhaul the property tax system without putting a constitutional amendment on the ballot for voters to decide on. But then there's also just the sort of the reality of what it means to entirely get rid of property taxes, because those help fund a lot of services at the local level. Local governments really depend on property taxes

to fund things like the school system and police and firefighters and parks. Some policy analysts have said that the way to make up that revenue would be to significantly increase the sales tax. And that perhaps is not something that residents are gonna be very happy with. That was WSJ Economics reporter, Ariane Campoflores.

Thank you, Ariane. Thank you, my pleasure. And finally, are you into basketball? Celtics fan, maybe? Well, your favorite team and some might argue, the most storied franchise in the history of professional basketball, is about to change hands. Today, a group led by Wick Grossbeck, the Celtics' current owner, announced an agreement to sell

the team to a group led by William Chisholm, co-founder of the private equity firm Symphony Technology Group. The deal values the Celtics at $6.1 billion, the highest price paid for a team in the history of American sports. And sorry football fans, that beats the $6.05 billion sale of the NFL's Washington Commanders in 2023. And that's what's news for this Thursday afternoon. Today's show was produced by Anthony Bansi and Pierre Bienamé, with supervising producer Michael Kosmitis.

I'm Alex Osola for The Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. was produced by Anthony Bansi and Pierre Bienamé with supervising producer Michael Cosmitis. I'm Alex Osala for The Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening!