As Florida's legislative session gets closer to a scheduled March 13 end date, Gov. Ron DeSantis better have his veto pen handy.

If DeSantis is going to remain true to the principles he's been talking about repeatedly over the past several months, he may have to kill some legislation aimed at bringing more growth to the Sunshine State.

For months, DeSantis has been talking about doing away with property taxes, at least on "homesteaded" properties used as primary residences by state residents. (Killing property taxes is an idea that's under discussion in at least a dozen other states as well.)

No one likes taxes, so it's a politically popular idea. Except that property taxes are one of the major sources of revenue used by city and county governments to provide services like police, fire protection, roads, sewers, parks and libraries.

Why are local governments spending so much? Hmmm ...

Here's where it gets complicated: DeSantis said property taxes need to go because city and county governments are spending too much of them.

During a Feb. 25 news conference in St. Augustine, the Florida governor said local government spending has increased by $28 billion since 2019. (State government spending has gone up about as much during the same time frame, but unsurprisingly, that's not one of his talking points.)

Why is local government spending up so much?........

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