Florida voters will decide on November 3 whether to cut their property taxes, and the version on the ballot is a good deal narrower than the one Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed. Lawmakers sent HJR 1F to the ballot, where it will need 60 percent approval to take effect [1].
Here is what the amendment does. It raises the non-school homestead exemption to $150,000 in 2027 and to $250,000 in the years after that. It adds a five-year property-tax exemption for non-permanent residents. It also caps the annual growth in assessed value on non-homestead property at 5 percent, down from the current 10 percent [1].
What voters will not find on the ballot is the plan DeSantis actually wanted. The governor sought to eliminate the homestead property tax entirely, and to pair that with a state fund that would reimburse local governments for the revenue they lost. Lawmakers cut both pieces. The full repeal became a larger exemption, and the state backfill disappeared [1].
That second cut is the one with teeth. Property taxes are how Florida's counties and cities pay for a lot of the services residents use every day. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd warned that the change drains funds for services such as police and libraries [1]. Without the reimbursement DeSantis proposed, the money a homeowner keeps is money a local budget no longer collects, and there is no state check waiting to make it up.
The threshold matters as much as the policy. A constitutional amendment in Florida needs 60 percent of the vote, not a simple majority, so a measure can win more support than opposition and still fail. Between now and November 3, the argument voters will hear is a straightforward trade: a larger exemption on the household side, set against thinner local budgets on the other, with the buffer that might have covered the gap already removed [1].
