Amendment · every Florida voter

Amendment 3Bigger homestead tax break, lower cap on other property

Legislative referral (constitutional amendment): Ballot No. 3, placed on the ballot by the Legislature as House Joint Resolution 1F (2026 special session) . Passes with at least 60% of the votes cast on it.

Read the full text of the measure: Division of Elections full-text file (PDF)

In plain words

"Homestead exemption" means the part of your home's value that property taxes skip, if it is the home you live in. Today non-school taxes skip about $50,000 and school taxes skip $25,000. Amendment 3 would raise the non-school amount to $250,000 by 2028. It lowers the annual cap on how fast the assessed value of non-homestead property can grow, from 10% to 5%, for non-school taxes; tax bills also depend on rates and other rules. (wlrn.org )

Before and after

Question	Today	If Amendment 3 passes
How much of your home's taxed value city and county taxes skip	First $25,000, plus another $25,000 of value between $50,000 and $75,000	$150,000 in 2027, $250,000 in 2028, then rising with inflation
How much school taxes skip	$25,000	No change
Most the taxed value of other property can rise in a year	10%	5%
What cities and counties can spend property tax on	Not limited by the constitution	Listed services such as public safety; other spending needs a vote of local officials
New Florida residents (not living here on Dec. 31, 2026)	Same break as everyone	Bigger break starts in their fifth year

Numbers come from the official ballot title and from the full text and analyses cited on this page, not from the title alone (ballot title ); also see (wlrn.org )

Example

Illustration only: a home you live in, taxed on $300,000, in a place where city and county taxes add up to $12 for every $1,000 of value. Today those taxes apply to about $250,000 of value: about $3,000 a year. In 2028 they would apply to $50,000: about $600 a year. School taxes, which don't change, are left out of this example. Florida Realtors, who back Amendment 3, estimate the average homeowner would save about $1,000 in 2027 and $1,800 in 2028. (wlrn.org )

Biggest change

For the home you live in (your "homestead"), city, county and other non-school property taxes would skip the first $150,000 of its taxed value in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028, then more each year with inflation. School taxes are not changed. source: wlrn.org
For other property (rentals, second homes, businesses), the taxed value could go up at most 5% a year instead of 10%. source: wlrn.org
Cities and counties could use property tax only for a listed set of uses: public safety, schools, roads and other infrastructure, flood control and natural resources, debt payments, employee retirement, and running local government, including other spending their officials approve unless state law forbids it. source: initiativepetitions.dos.fl.gov
People moving to Florida after 2026 would get only the old $50,000 break for their first four years with a homestead exemption. Starting in 2030, a county or city could shorten that wait by a two-thirds vote. source: initiativepetitions.dos.fl.gov
Counties and cities could choose to raise the break further, up to the home's full value. Special districts (such as fire or hospital districts) could do so only with a local vote. source: initiativepetitions.dos.fl.gov

Who it affects most: Homeowners who live in their home (who pay less), cities, counties and special districts (which collect less), and the people who use their services. Owners of rentals, second homes and businesses don't get the bigger homestead break, but their property's taxed value could rise only 5% a year instead of 10%.

Cost to the state: The official Senate analysis estimates local governments (non-school taxes) would collect $4.95 billion less in 2027-28, $8.78 billion less in 2028-29 and $11.86 billion less a year on a recurring basis. That is a forecast of lower local revenue, not a guarantee of service cuts, and the state's own administrative cost is separate. Critics' larger projections, such as one reported by Florida Phoenix, are their own estimates.

Our plain-words summary. Every line points to its source.

What your vote means

YES

City and county taxes would skip the first $150,000 of the taxed value of the home you live in from 2027 and $250,000 from 2028, and the taxed value of other property could rise at most 5% a year instead of 10%.

Your home keeps today's smaller break (about $50,000 of value skipped for city and county taxes), and other property can still rise up to 10% a year.

Our one-line summary. Florida does not publish an official "what your vote means" statement; the ballot title above is the official description.

Why people want it, and why others object

Why this is on the ballot

The Legislature put this on the ballot. It changes the state constitution, so only another statewide vote can change it back. It passes with 60% of the votes cast on it.

The Legislature passed it in a 2026 special session, with strong backing from Gov. Ron DeSantis. source: wflx.com
In August 2026 Leon County Circuit Judge David Frank ruled the original ballot wording "clearly and conclusively defective" and ordered the Attorney General to rewrite it. The rewrite removed a list of promised benefits and added that property taxes must be used for listed services. source: wjhg.com

Why supporters want it

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R): "You vote for it, you'll pay less. End of story." source: wflx.com
Margy Grant, CEO of Florida Realtors: "Amendment 3 is ultimately about giving Florida homeowners actual meaningful tax relief." source: wlrn.org

Why opponents object

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd (R): "Amendment 3 doesn't protect law enforcement, firefighters or emergency services, it defunds them." source: wlrn.org
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava: "It would leave us paying more while getting less." She estimates the county would lose about 10% of its general fund money in the first year and 20% in the second. source: wflx.com
Jackson Peel of Save Our Services, which sued over the ballot wording, called it a "scam and tax shift" and said, "We're going to lose things like health care services, money for EMTs..." source: wjhg.com

Who backs each side

For: Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Vote Yes on 3 committee, which has received $18 million from Florida Realtors. source: wlrn.org
Against: Save Our Services; sheriffs, police and fire chiefs; local officials such as Miami-Dade's mayor, with labor, business and civic groups; environmental groups 1000 Friends of Florida and the Sierra Club; and the Florida Policy Institute, a research group. We have not found reported totals for the opposing side's money. source: wlrn.org

In each side's own words where we could find them, quoted or summarized with a link to the source. We don't endorse either side.

Claim check

We check facts that people on each side state about this measure. Verdicts: True, Mostly true, Mixed, Mostly false, False, or Too early to tell.

Margy Grant, Florida Realtors CEO, for the Yes on 3 campaign, supports it: says the average homeowner would save about $1,000 a year in 2027 and about $1,800 in 2028. Too early to tell
What we found: The state estimates local governments would collect $4.95 billion less in 2027-28 and $8.78 billion less in 2028-29, but it does not give an average savings per home. Florida TaxWatch estimates for Central Florida range from $352 to $1,810 in 2027 and $710 to $3,646 in 2028, depending on where you live. Savings apply only to non-school taxes and depend on future local tax rates. source: Florida House bill analysis source: News 6 (TaxWatch estimates)
Florida Realtors (Yes on 3 campaign), supports it: says Amendment 3 would not affect school funding. True
What we found: The bigger $150,000 (2027) and $250,000 (2028) exemptions apply only to non-school taxes. The new 5% cap on yearly assessment growth for non-homestead property does not apply to school district taxes. School taxes on homes keep the current $25,000 exemption. source: amendment text as passed source: Florida House bill analysis source: Division of Elections
Florida Policy Institute, opposes it: says Amendment 3 would blow a roughly $12 billion-a-year hole in local budgets. True
What we found: The state Revenue Estimating Conference says local property tax collections would drop by $4.95 billion in 2027-28 and $8.78 billion in 2028-29. The full yearly loss reaches about $11.86 billion by 2031-32. These estimates assume local tax rates stay the same. source: Florida House bill analysis source: Central Florida Public Media
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, opposes it: says Amendment 3 defunds law enforcement, firefighters and emergency services. Mixed
What we found: The amendment cuts local property tax money by billions of dollars a year, but it does not cut any particular service. Public safety, including police, fire and EMS, is the first item on the list of uses local property taxes are allowed to pay for. Local boards would decide whether to cut services, raise tax rates, or find other money. source: amendment text as passed source: Florida House bill analysis
The Legislature's original ballot summary, later struck by a court, supports it: says Amendment 3 sets a schedule to fully eliminate homestead property taxes and ensures funding for core services like fire and emergency response. False
What we found: The judge found the amendment does not require local governments to eliminate homestead taxes and does not guarantee any level of funding for police, fire or other services. The Attorney General's rewritten summary, on the ballot now, drops both claims. The amendment text itself has no elimination schedule. source: Division of Elections source: Attorney General's rewritten ballot wording source: amendment text as passed

Each check uses at least 2 sources, one of them official. Where we did the math ourselves, we say so.

What you will see on your ballot

Official ballot wording, word for word (tap to open)

The official ballot title, word for word from the Division of Elections' full-text file .

INCREASED HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION; LOWER CAP ON INCREASES IN NON-HOMESTEAD PROPERTY ASSESSMENTS.—

This amendment increases the homestead exemption, for all non-school taxes, to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028, and adjusts for inflation thereafter. It requires the Legislature to prescribe a uniform procedure for counties and municipalities, for their respective levies, to increase the homestead exemption up to full assessed value, and allows special districts, subject to referendum approval, to do the same.

Persons who are not Florida residents on December 31, 2026, will receive the existing homestead exemption upon qualifying for a homestead exemption, with the increased homestead exemption beginning with the fifth year of exemption, to the extent permitted by the U.S. Constitution.

This amendment reduces the annual cap on assessment increases for non-homestead properties from 10% to 5%.

This amendment requires counties and municipalities to use property taxes solely for public safety, education and schools, infrastructure, natural resources, bond debt service, retirement benefits for employees, and operations and administration. Other expenditures may be approved by county officers or county or municipal governing bodies unless prohibited by general law, notwithstanding Article VII, Section 9(a) of the Florida Constitution, which allows counties and municipalities to levy property taxes for their respective purposes.

This amendment takes effect January 1, 2027.

YES
NO

This is the ballot title and summary Attorney General James Uthmeier sent the Secretary of State on Aug. 13, 2026, after a court ruled the Legislature's wording "clearly and conclusively defective" in Save Our Voters From Misleading Ballot Language, Inc. v. Byrd. The amendment itself did not change, only the wording voters see. The Division of Elections posts the letter as a scanned image, so we typed it from the scan; your county sample ballot is the final word.

Latest news

Recent reporting from a range of outlets, newest first. We link to it; we don't endorse it.

No articles collected yet for this measure.

Full text of the measure

The full text of the change is in the Division of Elections file. Read it in the Division of Elections full-text file (PDF) , or on the Legislature's page for House Joint Resolution 1F (2026 special session) , which also shows the votes in each chamber.

We link to analysis from several sources; we don't endorse it.