Florida's property tax amendment rewritten for November ballot after court ruling

Florida voters will see new language when they decide a major property tax amendment this November, after a judge ruled the original ballot wording was misleading and ordered the attorney general to rewrite it. The statewide measure would dramatically increase homestead exemptions and could reshape how local governments across Northeast Florida fund schools, infrastructure, and services.

Tallahassee Circuit Judge David Frank found that parts of the initial ballot language were 'more akin to a political slogan' than the neutral, clear summary required by state law. Attorney General James Uthmeier submitted revised language Thursday that removes promotional phrases and adopts more technical descriptions of what the amendment would actually do.

What's on the ballot

The rewritten amendment changes the title from 'Save Our Homes From Excessive Property Taxes' to 'Increased Homestead Exemption; Lower Cap on Increases in Non-Homesteaded Property Assessments.' If approved by at least 60% of voters, the measure would raise Florida's homestead exemption to $150,000 for most property owners in 2027 and up to $250,000 in 2028. The exemption would then increase annually with inflation.

Under current law, Florida homeowners receive a $50,000 homestead exemption — $25,000 off the assessed value for all taxes, and another $25,000 off for non-school taxes on the portion of a home's value above $50,000. The amendment would more than triple that cap for qualifying homeowners.

The revised ballot language also clarifies a residency requirement that applies differently to longtime Floridians versus new arrivals. Residents as of December 31, 2025, would receive the higher exemption immediately when it takes effect. New Florida residents who move after that date would have to wait five years before qualifying for the increased exemption, 'to the extent permitted by the U.S. Constitution' — language acknowledging constitutional questions about treating residents differently based on when they arrived.

The amendment would additionally require the Legislature to create a procedure allowing local governments to increase the homestead exemption all the way to a property's full assessed value, and would let special districts do the same through referendum. The original ballot summary said this would lead to 'full elimination' of property taxes, but Judge Frank ruled the amendment's actual text did not guarantee that outcome. The rewritten version describes the mechanism without promising elimination.

Impact on Northeast Florida homeowners

For homeowners across Duval, St. Johns, Clay, Nassau, and surrounding counties, the amendment could mean substantially lower annual property tax bills — if local governments and school boards do not raise millage rates to compensate for lost revenue. A homeowner with a $400,000 house currently receives a $50,000 exemption and pays taxes on $350,000 of assessed value. Under the amendment's 2028 cap, that same homeowner would pay taxes on only $150,000 of assessed value if the exemption reaches $250,000.

The savings would be largest in counties with higher millage rates and in areas where home values have appreciated rapidly, such as coastal St. Johns County and parts of Mandarin, Riverside, and San Marco in Duval. A $250,000 exemption on a $500,000 home in an area with a combined millage rate around 20 mills (typical for city, county, and school taxes in much of Jacksonville) could reduce annual property taxes by roughly $4,000 compared to current law, though the exact amount depends on each property's assessed value and the taxing authorities' rates.

The five-year waiting period for new residents could affect how buyers moving to the region from out of state calculate housing costs. Someone relocating to Northeast Florida in 2027 would receive only the current $50,000 exemption until 2032, while their neighbor who arrived in 2025 would immediately benefit from the higher cap. Former state Senator Jeff Brandes, one of the plaintiffs who challenged the original ballot language, has argued this residency distinction may violate equal-protection principles under the U.S. Constitution — the reason the revised summary includes the constitutional hedge.

What it means for local government budgets

Local governments and school districts across the region derive the majority of their operating revenue from property taxes. In Jacksonville and Duval County, property taxes fund essential city services, the school district's budget, and independent taxing authorities such as JEA (which levies for debt service) and the Jacksonville Transportation Authority. Shrinking the taxable base by raising exemptions would force elected officials to choose between cutting services, raising millage rates on the remaining taxable value, or finding alternative revenue sources.

School funding is partially protected under the amendment as passed by the Legislature. Governor Ron DeSantis' office authored the initial proposal, but lawmakers amended the language to shield school property taxes from some of the exemption increases. Even so, school districts — particularly fast-growing systems in St. Johns and Clay counties that are building new schools to keep pace with residential development — would see reduced property-tax capacity at a time when enrollment is climbing.

Cities and counties would face the largest impact. A higher homestead exemption does not affect commercial or industrial properties, or residential properties that are not owner-occupied (such as rental homes and second homes). That means the tax burden would shift further toward businesses, investment properties, and vacation homes. In beach communities such as Jacksonville Beach, Neptune Beach, Atlantic Beach, and Amelia Island in Nassau County, where a significant share of homes are not homesteaded, the change could concentrate more of the tax load on non-resident property owners and commercial districts.

Special districts — entities such as community development districts that manage infrastructure in master-planned communities like Nocatee in St. Johns County or the Wildlight development in Nassau County — would gain the option under the amendment to let voters decide whether to raise exemptions to full assessed value through referendum. If a CDD's voters approved such a measure, the district would lose property-tax revenue and would need to rely more heavily on assessments and fees to maintain roads, stormwater systems, and amenities.

Impact on the real estate market

The amendment could influence homebuying decisions and property values in competing ways. Higher exemptions make homeownership more affordable for those who qualify, which could increase demand and support home prices, particularly for move-up buyers already living in Florida who would receive the exemption immediately. Real estate agents and mortgage lenders often cite Florida's existing homestead exemption and Save Our Homes assessment cap as selling points for out-of-state buyers; expanding the exemption to $250,000 would amplify that advantage.

At the same time, the five-year waiting period could dampen demand from new arrivals, a major driver of Northeast Florida's housing market. Buyers relocating from higher-tax states have fueled much of the growth in St. Johns County and along the First Coast Expressway corridor in Clay County. If those buyers realize they will pay significantly higher property taxes than their neighbors for five years, some may choose to delay a move or look at states without such restrictions. How real estate professionals explain and market around the residency requirement will shape its practical effect.

The shift in tax burden toward non-homesteaded properties could also affect investment and rental markets. Investors who own single-family rentals would see no benefit from the higher exemption, but would pay taxes on the same assessed value as before while local governments potentially raise millage rates to recover lost revenue. That could compress rental-property returns and slow investor purchases, which would reduce competition for starter homes but might also constrain rental supply in a region where renter households are a growing share of the population, particularly in urban Jacksonville and near the universities.

How the ballot language changed

Judge Frank's order and Uthmeier's rewrite eliminated language plaintiffs argued was advocacy rather than explanation. The original summary included subheadings such as 'protecting small businesses' and 'ensuring fairness for Florida residents.' The revised version uses straightforward descriptions of the amendment's mechanics: what the exemption caps would be, when they would take effect, and what authority local governments would gain.

The lawsuit filed in June by a group that included former lawmakers did not ask the court to remove the amendment from the ballot, only to rewrite the summary. State law and prior Florida Supreme Court rulings require that constitutional amendments presented to voters use neutral, unbiased language so voters understand what they are approving. Courts have struck or rewritten ballot summaries in the past when they included misleading statements or omitted material information about an amendment's effects.

Under the court's timeline, plaintiffs have ten days from Thursday's filing to challenge Uthmeier's rewrite if they believe it still fails to meet legal standards. If no challenge is filed or if a challenge is rejected, the revised language will appear on ballots across Florida in November.

What happens next

The amendment will go before voters statewide on November 3, 2026. Constitutional amendments in Florida require approval by at least 60% of voters to pass. Governor DeSantis has said he will vote for the measure but will not actively campaign for it, a notable shift given that his office drafted the original proposal.

If the amendment passes, the $150,000 homestead exemption cap would take effect for the 2027 tax year (taxes paid in late 2027 and early 2028 on 2027 assessed values). The cap would rise to $250,000 for the 2028 tax year and adjust with inflation thereafter. The Legislature would be required to enact implementing legislation creating the process for local governments to raise exemptions further, and county property appraisers' offices across Northeast Florida would need to update systems to apply the new caps and track which homeowners qualify based on residency dates.

Local government budget discussions in Duval, St. Johns, Clay, Nassau, and other counties would begin in mid-2027 as elected officials assess revenue impacts and decide whether to adjust millage rates. Public hearings on proposed tax rates and budgets typically occur in September each year under Florida's TRIM (Truth in Millage) process, and the 2027 hearings would be the first opportunity for residents to weigh in on how their city or county responds to the exemption increase.

The amendment is the latest chapter in Florida's long-running debate over property taxes and tax fairness, a debate that has intensified as rapid in-migration and home-price appreciation have driven assessment increases across the state. For Northeast Florida, where growth is reshaping communities from Wildlight to Nocatee to downtown Jacksonville, how voters respond in November will help determine who pays for the schools, roads, and infrastructure that growth demands.