Florida is on the verge of making the biggest changes to its property tax laws in modern history. If voters pass a new proposal on November 3, 2026, the new rules will completely change how property taxes work for homeowners, landlords, and local governments starting January 1, 2027.

The plan is driven by two pieces of legislation: CS/HB 3F (the enforcement law) and CS/SJR 2-F (the proposed constitutional amendment called “Save Our Homes From Excessive Property Taxes”). Together, they offer huge tax cuts for permanent residents while putting strict limits on how cities and counties can spend your tax dollars.

Massive New Tax Breaks for Current Residents
The proposed amendment wants to radically change how much of your home’s value can be taxed. Under the current system, the first $50,000 of your home’s value is shielded from city and county property taxes. The new plan will super-size that discount over two years:

• Starting January 1, 2027: Your tax discount expands so that the first $150,000 of your home’s value is completely tax-free for city and county levies.
• Starting January 1, 2028: That tax-free shield jumps to $250,000.
• The Long-Term Goal: Starting in 2029, this $250,000 limit will go up with inflation every year. Even bigger, the state legislature is being ordered to create a timeline to eventually eliminate city and county property taxes on primary homes altogether.

Note: These new discounts do not apply to school district taxes. You will still pay school taxes normally on everything above your standard $25,000 school exemption.

The 5-Year Waiting Period for New Residents
To keep the state’s budget from crashing, the law creates a strict penalty for people moving to Florida.

If you become a permanent Florida resident after December 31, 2026, you will not get the massive $250,000 tax break right away. Instead, your tax discount is capped at just $50,000 for your first five years. Only after you have lived in Florida and paid taxes for five consecutive years will you unlock the full $250,000 break.

A Huge Break for Small Businesses and Landlords
Right now, if you own a business or a rental property, the state limits how fast your property’s assessed value can go up to 10% a year.

Starting January 1, 2027, the new law cuts that cap exactly in half. The value of commercial properties and small rental buildings (9 units or fewer) can only go up by a maximum of 5% a year for city and county taxes. This protects landlords and businesses from getting hit with sudden, massive tax spikes when the real estate market is hot.

Real-Life Example: A Titusville Street in 2028
To see how this works, imagine three identical houses on a street in Titusville, FL. Each house is worth $275,000. Here is how their city and county tax bills will look different by 2028 based on who lives there:

• Neighbor A (Longtime Resident): They lived in Florida before 2027. They get the full $250,000 tax break. The city and county can only tax them on $25,000 of their home’s value ($275,000 – $250,000). Their city/county tax bill is nearly zero.
• Neighbor B (New Resident from Out of State): They moved to Titusville in 2027. They are stuck in the 5-year waiting period, so they only get a $50,000 tax break. The city and county will tax them on $225,000 of their home’s value ($275,000 – $50,000). They pay way more than Neighbor A for the exact same house.
• Neighbor C (The Landlord): They rent the house out to tenants. Since it isn’t their personal home, they get $0 in exemptions. They are taxed on the full $275,000 value. However, if the local market explodes, their property value can only go up by 5% max next year instead of 10%.

Tight Financial Handcuffs on Local Governments
Because cities and counties get most of their money from property taxes, wiping out taxes on the first $250,000 of home values is going to leave local government budgets empty.

To make matters tougher, the state is putting local governments in financial “handcuffs.” The law says cities and counties can only spend property tax money on specific “core services”:

• Police, fire, and emergency medical services (EMS).
• Public schools and education.
• Roads, bridges, and stormwater/flood control.
• Paying off government bonds and employee retirement pensions.
• Basic day-to-day administration costs.

What gets left out? Things like public parks, libraries, community pools, local festivals, and cultural arts programs are not on the approved list. Cities will no longer be allowed to use property taxes to fund them. To keep these programs alive, cities will be forced to either cancel them or invent new fees—like higher trash-pickup rates, utility taxes, or parking fees.

Making it Harder to Raise Taxes
If a local city council wants to raise tax rates to make up for all this lost money, they can’t just do it with a simple majority vote anymore. To raise tax rates, they will need a two-thirds or completely unanimous vote from their council members, or they will have to put it on a public ballot for the voters to decide.

What This Means for the State
Because small, rural counties will face immediate bankruptcy without property tax money, the state government will have to step in and bail them out. The state legislature will use its own money (mostly funded by sales tax) to keep these small county governments afloat. This means the state government in Tallahassee will gain a massive amount of control over your local city and county decisions.