Florida lawmakers are moving closer to putting a major property tax cut before voters this fall, without yet agreeing on how far to go, or how to pay for it.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has urged legislators to send “one vehicle” for meaningful relief to the November ballot, and with roughly 3.5 weeks left in the regular session, House committees have advanced three competing constitutional amendment proposals.
The measures would lower taxes for homeowners in sharply different ways, from phasing out nonschool taxes on homesteads to expanding exemptions tied to carrying property insurance, to rewriting Florida’s assessment growth caps. None, however, goes as far as a full property tax wipeout that DeSantis has hinted at.
And all run headlong into the same hard limit: Property taxes are the backbone of local budgets, and without a clear replacement framework, deep cuts can quickly turn into a fight over lost revenue.
DeSantis pushes for one ballot measure as the House advances 3 paths
The measures that are now moving target different pressure points for homeowners.
HJR 203, the furthest along of all the proposals, would gradually phase out nonschool property taxes on homesteads by increasing the homestead exemption by $100,000 each year for 10 years beginning in 2027, with homesteads becoming exempt from all nonschool ad valorem taxes by 2037. That phase-out would give localities time to replace the lost revenue, the bill’s sponsors argue.
Notably, it would keep the school portion of property taxes in place, which is often the largest portion of a homeowner’s tax bill. The bill is scheduled for a House floor vote on Feb. 19, after being placed on the Special Order Calendar.
HJR 209, meanwhile, would expand the homestead exemption for homeowners who carry property insurance, increasing the exemption from nonschool property taxes for insured homesteads by $200,000. It has already cleared Ways and Means and is now on the House Second Reading Calendar, where lawmakers can add amendments and ask questions of the bills’ sponsors.
And HJR 213 would rewrite Florida’s assessment growth limits, capping increases in taxable value for homesteaded property under the “Save Our Homes” framework to 3% over three years (instead of up to 3% annually), while allowing taxable values on nonhomesteaded property (such as second homes) to rise 15% over three years, compared with the current 10% annual cap. It, too, has moved through Ways and Means and is now on the Second Reading Calendar.
The missing piece: Florida hasn’t agreed on how to replace the revenue
Noticeably absent from the House’s leading proposals is the cleanest—and most politically explosive—option DeSantis has flirted with: wiping out property taxes outright.
The closest version of that idea, HJR 201, would exempt homesteads from all ad valorem taxes other than school district levies as soon as January 2027, but it has not advanced on the same track as the other measures and remains in committee territory.
That gap reflects the hardest problem in Florida’s property tax debate: How to replace lost revenue.
The state’s Revenue Estimating Conference has projected that a homestead-only elimination approach like HJR 201 would carry an annual price tag of $18.3 billion on local nonschool property tax revenues.
Even the less-than-total repeal proposals still come with eye-popping local-government hits.
Under HJR 203, which phases out nonschool taxes on homesteads by steadily expanding the homestead exemption, analysts project an annual $13.3 billion shortfall for local nonschool property tax revenues.
HJR 209’s insurance-linked exemption, meanwhile, carries an annual cost of $8.6 billion under staff estimates, while HJR 213’s assessment cap rewrite is projected at about $5.2 billion.
What happens next: The ballot path is steep—and not guaranteed
Any of the measures would still face a narrow and uncertain path to the November ballot.
Because they are proposed constitutional amendments, the joint resolutions must pass the Florida House and Senate by a three-fifths vote in each chamber. The proposal would not go to the governor’s desk for a signature or veto, and would instead head to the state’s ballot, where Florida voters would need to approve it by at least 60% to take effect.
If lawmakers can’t agree on a single proposal before the regular session ends, DeSantis has floated the idea of calling a special session focused on property tax relief.
“I don’t know that it necessarily is something that you do in the regular session either,” he said. “We’ll see what happens. I think there’s some value in teeing something up that the voters see [and] going up [to Tallahassee] to do this. And then voters can talk to their members about what they want to do,” DeSantis said at an early January press conference.
For now, House leaders are still juggling multiple proposals as they wait to see what the Senate will support—and whether the two chambers can converge on a single amendment before the session clock runs out.