The property-tax amendment, in plain words

The state's estimate

What each county stands to lose

The Revenue Estimating Conference estimated what the amendment would take from every non-school property-tax levy in each county: county government, cities and special districts together. Shaded here per $1,000 of each county’s taxable value, so large and small counties can be compared. Choose a year.

What the text changes

1. A larger homestead exemption for every levy except schools. From 1 January 2027 the first $150,000 of a home’s assessed value is exempt from county, city and special-district taxes; from 1 January 2028, the first $250,000, rising with inflation from 2029. School taxes keep today’s $25,000 exemption. Art. VII, s. 6(a)(1)a and (2)a.
2. A wait for newcomers. Someone who was not a permanent Florida resident on 31 December 2026 gets $50,000 off those levies at first, and the full amount from the fifth year. From 2030 a county or city may shorten the wait by a two-thirds vote, for what the text calls “a critical local need”. s. 6(a)(1)b and (4)a.2.
3. A tighter cap on everything that is not a homestead. Assessments of rental homes, commercial property and land may rise by no more than 5% a year for non-school levies from 1 January 2027, down from 10%. The 3% cap on homesteads is unchanged. s. 4(g) and (h).
4. A list of what counties and cities may spend property tax on. Public safety; education and schools; infrastructure, including roads, bridges and stormwater; natural-resource projects, including flood control; bonds and debt service; employee retirement benefits; and the operations of county officers, commissions and cities. That last category is broad, so the list may limit little in practice, though no court has said so. s. 9(a)(2).
5. Room to go further, locally. The Legislature must set a procedure by which a county or city may raise its own exemption, up to the whole assessed value of a home. A special district may do the same by referendum. The text does not itself set a date for ending homestead property tax. s. 6(a)(4).

What the state says it would cost

The Revenue Estimating Conference, the state’s official scorekeeper for tax changes, estimated the loss to all non-school property-tax levies statewide, before any local government responds:

What the estimate leaves out

• What local governments do next. The conference assumed no change in tax rates or spending. Counties, cities and districts can raise rates within the legal caps, cut services, or both; the estimate cannot say which.
• Any later move to full elimination. Local decisions to raise the exemption further, under the procedure the amendment requires, are not counted.
• Help for small counties. Florida already pays fiscally constrained counties for revenue lost to some past amendments. Sections 218.12, 218.125 and 218.136 cover the 2008 and 2024 changes only; none covers this one. Franklin, Gulf and Wakulla are fiscally constrained this year. s. 218.12 · DOR list.
• Who in a county loses what. The county figures cover every non-school levy together. How the loss splits between the county commission, the cities and the special districts is not published.

How the region’s legislators voted to put it on the ballot

On 2 June 2026 the Senate passed the resolution 30 to 9 and the House 75 to 26, with 1 senator and 17 representatives not voting. These are the members whose districts include any part of the eight counties.

Votes from the final-passage roll calls: Senate, 12:57 PM · House, 12:29 PM. Districts and their counties from CS/SJR 100 (2022), the legislative apportionment, which lists the counties in each House and Senate district. A legislator’s vote put the question to voters; it is not a vote on the amendment itself.

Terms used here

Homestead exemption

The part of a permanent resident’s home value that is not taxed. Today it is $25,000 for every levy, plus up to about $25,000 more for non-school levies, a second amount that has risen with inflation since 2025. Art. VII, s. 6(a)(3) as numbered in the enrolled text.

Save Our Homes cap

The limit on how fast a homestead’s assessed value may rise: 3% a year or inflation, whichever is less. The amendment leaves it as it is.

Non-homestead cap

The limit on yearly assessment increases for rental homes, businesses and land, now 10% for non-school levies. The amendment would make it 5%.

Taxable value

Assessed value less exemptions: the base a tax rate is applied to.

Mill

One dollar of tax per $1,000 of taxable value. A county’s millage is its tax rate.

Rolled-back rate

The rate that would raise the same tax from the same properties as last year, leaving out new construction. This year’s rates against it.

Fiscally constrained county

A county where one mill raises $5 million or less, or one lying wholly within a rural area of opportunity (s. 218.67, F.S.). Franklin, Gulf and Wakulla qualify this year.

Revenue Estimating Conference

The state’s official forecasters for the effect of tax changes. Its principals are staff of the Governor’s office, the Senate and the House, and the coordinator of the Legislature’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research. s. 216.134(4)(c), F.S.

Where property tax goes today

Each county page shows how much of the county government’s own revenue comes from property tax, how much comes from the state and federal government, and what it owes.

Two other 2026 laws on local budgets

• A lower ceiling on tax rates. Since 24 June 2026, a county’s maximum millage without a two-thirds vote is its rolled-back rate, the rate that would raise the same money as last year. A second act, approved five days later, amends the same paragraph in different words; which text governs has not been settled. Ch. 2026-240 · ch. 2026-239 · this year’s rates against it.
• A 10% exercise every year. From 1 January 2027 every county and city must hold a budget workshop that identifies how next year’s budget could be cut by 10%. Ch. 2026-161 · what 10% means in each county.