Florida's Property Tax Cut and the $8 Billion Question

Florida wants to wipe property taxes off owner-occupied homes, and nobody in Tallahassee has yet said, on the record, who covers the bill.

A special session built around one constitutional amendment

On May 27, 2026, Governor Ron DeSantis called the Florida Legislature back to Tallahassee for a special session beginning the week of June 1, 2026. The vehicle is a constitutional amendment titled "Save Our Homes from Excessive Property Taxes," and its mechanics are straightforward on paper. Florida's homestead property-tax exemption on primary residences would rise from its current $50,000 floor to $150,000 in 2027, then to $250,000 in 2028. DeSantis has asked lawmakers to write a schedule that pushes the exemption to $500,000 and ultimately eliminates property taxes on owner-occupied homes altogether.

The plan is narrower than the headlines suggest. It only touches homestead properties. Vacation homes, rental units, and commercial real estate stay on the tax rolls at their current rates. A new residency rule attached to the package would require anyone establishing Florida residency after January 1, 2027 to remain a Florida resident for up to five years before they qualify for the larger exemption, a guardrail aimed at new arrivals.

For any of this to become law, the Florida House and Senate must each pass the amendment with a 60% supermajority. Voters then have to approve it with at least 60% support in the November 2026 general election. This is not the first attempt at something in this register. Earlier in 2026, the Florida House passed HJR 203, a separate bill that would have eliminated most non-school homestead property taxes, but the measure died in the Florida Senate. The June package is the second pass, and this time it is structured as a constitutional amendment, which puts the final word in front of voters rather than the upper chamber.

The credibility gap on who actually pays zero

DeSantis has pitched the early phase of the plan in expansive terms, telling Floridians that 60% of homesteaded homeowners would pay zero property tax under the initial increase. "I want to get something done," he said on May 27, 2026. "I want to make sure people can go and vote for something, and then see something that's going to be very, very meaningful in their lives."

The arithmetic underneath that claim is contested. A fact-check by WLRN radio and PolitiFact found that only about 28% of Florida homestead properties have a just value at or below $250,000, the assessed level at which the second-step exemption would zero out a bill entirely. The gap between 60% and 28% is the difference between a tax cut that eliminates a bill and one that merely shrinks it. For the majority of current homesteaders, the new exemption would lower the line on the bill rather than erase it.

At the longer-horizon $500,000 exemption, Florida House analysis pegs the share of tax-free homestead properties at roughly 76%. DeSantis has separately put that figure closer to 92%. The numbers disagree, but they point in the same direction: the further the exemption climbs, the more local revenue disappears from the system.

Where the missing billions live

The fiscal picture is the part that has mayors and county appraisers writing letters. Florida House analysts project an over $8 billion statewide revenue loss in fiscal year 2027-28, split between $3.4 billion in school taxes and $4.6 billion in non-school taxes. By the 2028-29 fiscal year, that annual loss is projected to climb as high as $14 billion, with $5.6 billion in school taxes and $8.4 billion in non-school taxes. If the exemption settles at $500,000, school districts would shed roughly $5 billion per year and county governments roughly $4.8 billion per year on their own.

The local detail is where the abstraction lands. In Broward County, Property Appraiser Marty Kiar calculated that nearly 189,000 homeowners would owe zero property tax under the initial $250,000 exemption. The Broward County Commission would lose about $200 million in annual revenue, and the Broward County School Board would lose about $300 million. In Parkland, a small Broward city, the projected revenue loss is about $27 million, leaving roughly $5.4 million for the city to operate on. In Cooper City, the proposal would erase about 34% of currently collected property tax revenue. In Gainesville, Commissioner Bryan Eastman estimated about a 35% cut to the Alachua County Sheriff's Office tax base.

The five Florida counties most dependent on homestead property tax revenue are Flagler at 24%, Martin at 22%, Nassau at 18%, St. Johns at 18%, and St. Lucie at 18%. Miami-Dade Property Appraiser Tomas Regalado told NBC 6 the financial impact would be "significant but manageable" for larger municipalities, a description that does not extend evenly to the smaller cities further north.

The replacement question nobody has answered

Florida is one of nine US states with no personal income tax. The state government itself collects no property tax. Every dollar at stake in this amendment belongs to a local government, and those governments fund schools, sheriff's departments, fire-rescue, libraries, and parks. That structural fact is why the loudest opposition is coming from mayors, county commissioners, and school boards rather than from the Capitol.

Florida's statewide sales tax sits at 6% today. Independent estimates cited in the reporting suggest that closing the property-tax hole entirely through the sales tax would push that rate as high as 12%. DeSantis has rejected the framing, insisting Florida will not raise the state sales tax to cover the lost revenue and pointing to a state budget surplus and a Florida "DOGE" efficiency review as the alternative. Critics, including the nonpartisan Florida Policy Institute, which published a county-by-county map of projected revenue losses, argue the money has to come from somewhere: higher sales taxes, new local fees, non-ad valorem assessments that land on renters and utility bills, or visible cuts to public services.

State Representative Anna Eskamani of Orlando has called the plan a "tax shift, not a tax cut," arguing the revenue would still be collected, just from a different source. Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine-Cava wrote to legislative leaders that "any proposal to eliminate or significantly reduce property taxes deserves a full and honest conversation." Boca Raton Mayor Andy Thomson publicly compared the cuts to "a war on local governments." Jeff Brandes, the former Republican state senator who now runs the Florida Policy Project, told the Palm Beach Post that "the Legislature should not be pressured into rubber-stamping a once-in-a-generation overhaul." Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez, whose chamber has to clear the 60% threshold first, has been more reserved: "We look forward to reviewing it once we have received the language."

What the November ballot actually decides

The amendment will reach voters in November 2026 as a single up-or-down question, but the underlying choice is broader than the language on the ballot. Florida's local services have been built for decades around a stable homestead property-tax base, and the amendment would remove that base on a phased schedule without naming a replacement source. Average annual savings for a qualifying Broward homeowner under the initial plan come to about $4,129, with maximum savings at the $500,000 exemption running up to $9,000 per homeowner. Those are real numbers for the households that receive them. So are the $200 million the Broward County Commission would not collect, the $300 million the Broward County School Board would not collect, and the 35% reduction in the tax base of the Alachua County Sheriff's Office.

The five-year residency wait for new arrivals after January 1, 2027 adds a second layer to the question, tying the larger exemption to a longer commitment to the state. None of it resolves the central tension the special session opened with: how a state that collects no property tax of its own intends to keep funding the schools, sheriff's offices, and fire stations that property tax pays for today. Voters are the ones who will answer it.

Sources

• Newsweek, Florida Property Tax Cut Raises Questions Over Who Pays the Bill
• NBC 6 South Florida, Who wins and who pays? Inside DeSantis' new property tax proposal
• Local 10 News, Florida lawmakers weigh property tax cuts for homeowners
• FOX 35 Orlando, DeSantis pushes plan to sharply cut Florida property taxes
• Executive Office of the Governor, Save Our Homes Property Tax Elimination Proposal