IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Amendment 3

Upcoming Homestead Exemption

Amendment 3, which will be on the November general election ballot, would give Florida homeowners a much larger homestead exemption. To pass, it would require 60 percent voter approval. Ahead of the election, Florida TaxWatch has posted a resource page to help voters better understand how Amendment 3 would affect millage rates and levies for all 67 counties in the state.

“What I’ve been trying to hammer home is that exemptions are not tax cuts, they’re tax shifts,” said Matt Caldwell, Lee County property appraiser. 

Right now, Florida homeowners with a homestead exemption generally get $50,000 knocked off their taxable value for property-tax purposes. If Amendment 3 passes, the 2027 exemption rises to $150,000; 2028 rises to $250,000; and 2029 onward, the $250,000 amount would be adjusted for inflation.

Importantly, the $250,000 would not be $250,000 off your tax bill, but $250,000 off the value of the property used to calculate taxes.

Homestead properties must be primary, permanent residences. Residential property owners who are permanent Florida residents as of Dec. 31, 2026, would be eligible for the larger exemption amounts beginning in 2027. New permanent residents moving into Florida after Dec. 31, 2026, would start with the current $50,000 homestead exemption, and would become eligible for the full $250,000 exemption after five years.

Second homes, rental properties and commercial properties are not eligible for the increased exemption.

In the Boca Grande Fire Control District, there are 484 homesteaded properties and 1,198 non-homesteaded properties, according to the Lee County Property Appraiser’s 2026 Real Property Preliminary Tax Roll. 

Because nearly 70 percent of Boca Grande’s high-value properties are non-homesteaded, Amendment 3’s reduction in taxable homestead value would have a relatively limited effect on the Fire Control District’s overall tax base, Caldwell explained. 

“In Boca Grande the property values are so high, that [if Amendment 3 passes] there will still be a lot of taxable value left,” Caldwell said. “Where they will see an effect is the countywide revenue.”

Boca Grande represents a high-value portion of the county-wide tax roll, so if the county experiences a 30 to 40 percent loss of homestead value, that burden will shift to Boca Grande taxpayers, he said.

Florida’s property tax bills include an array of add-on taxes, some based on the assessed value and some based on a per-property fee. For instance, in Charlotte County, other taxes include public safety, water management and environmentally sensitive lands. Non-ad-valorem add-ons can include solid waste, street lighting and beautification, stormwater retention and solid waste.

The proposed change would not apply to non-school property taxes. In other words, school taxes are excluded from the change, which make up roughly 40 percent of the average property-tax bill, according to TaxWatch.

Additionally, Amendment 3 would reduce the assessment cap on non-homestead property from 10 percent per year to 5 percent per year.

Essentially, if the amendment passes, some homeowners would pay less. The question raised is how governments will get the revenue from other places.

TaxWatch estimates that Lee County would lose $178 million in property taxes in the first year alone of the amendment going into effect, and $1,750.5 million in the first five years. Charlotte County has a projected $46.1 million reduction in local property taxes in the TaxWatch Amendment 3 estimate.

County officials are already discussing ways they might compensate for this lost revenue, including additional Municipal Service Taxing Units (MSTUs), increased fees, increasing taxes, service reductions or eliminating programs. In the resolution, the state has not approved any state reimbursements approved for lost revenue.

During a Sept. 1 Board of Lee County Commissioners workshop, Pete Winton, chief financial officer and assistant county attorney, gave a broad overview of potential impacts of Amendment 3 if it is passed. The general fund and unincorporated MSTUs would be two of the largest Lee County property tax funds affected.

“The state is basically putting the burden back on us locally to raise taxes … if it passes,” said Commission Chairman Cecil Pendergrass.

The county budget would be in a $121 million deficit in Fiscal Year 2027-2028 if Amendment 3 is passed, according to Lee County Property Appraiser projections.

“So this kind of shows you what you’re solving for when you have those kind of deficits,” Winton said. “Those kind of deficits are pretty ugly.”

See floridataxwatch.org/research/florida-property-tax-resource-center/

Timeline: How the referendum ballot evolved

On May 27, Gov. Ron DeSantis introduced the idea of a property tax amendment entitled “Save Our Homes from Excessive Property Taxes.” He cited data showing that property tax revenue collected by local governments across Florida had nearly doubled over the previous seven years, from $32 billion to $60 billion, and was projected by some to reach $83 billion by 2032.

The initial proposal would have required local governments to use ad valorem tax money collected for basic public safety and education, and would have limited increases on businesses. It also included a requirement that anyone who moved to Florida after 2027 would have to live in the state for five years to qualify for the exemption. The proposal would also have created a trust fund to help local governments cover costs.

At a special legislative session in June, the amendment was approved, though DeSantis said that what the legislature passed “wasn’t my proposal.”

The state also made changes to restrict how localities calculate their tax rates. DeSantis approved Senate Bill 4-F, an implementation bill accompanying the constitutional amendment. It revises how local governments calculate the maximum property tax rate they may adopt with a simple majority vote. Under current law, local governments may increase the rolled-back rate based on growth in Florida’s per-capita personal income; minor increases beyond that now require a two-thirds supermajority vote, while larger increases require a unanimous vote or voter approval.

In August, the courts rewrote the ballot language to reduce confusion for voters.

After the changes, DeSantis was unhappy that the legislature carved out school taxes from the proposal and dropped the state trust fund backstop. He was also unhappy that the final version included only a partial cap on the homestead exemption rather than the full exemption he had originally proposed.

DeSantis nevertheless supported the revision, saying that while it was “modest” compared to his original idea, he still backed it. “You vote for it, you’ll pay less. End of story,” he said at a Jacksonville press conference.

In recent weeks, support has grown from some interested businesses, such as Florida Realtors, the state’s largest real estate trade association. They voted to support the amendment and put $10 million into the political committee Yes On 3. Other municipal and county groups have expressed worries about the ballot measure, including the Florida Association of Special Districts and other individual politicians and sheriffs.

Calculate the change

The state has provided an individual tax calculator for each property statewide. You can enter your address to see the estimated savings if the home is homesteaded and the full $250,000 exemption is applied. Visit saveourhomesfl.com.