How Much Will Amendment 3 Actually Save Me on My Property Taxes?
Nothing yet, and nothing before late 2027 even if it passes. Amendment 3 goes to Florida voters on November 3, and the relief it promises doesn’t show up on a tax bill until two years from now at the earliest.
What Does Amendment 3 Actually Change?
The underlying measure is CS/HJR 1F. If voters approve it at 60 percent or more, the homestead exemption would cover the first $150,000 of assessed value starting in 2027, then the first $250,000 from 2028 on, indexed to inflation after that. That bigger exemption only applies to non-school levies. The existing $25,000 exemption against school taxes stays exactly as it is, so school taxes keep landing on most of a home’s value either way.
The cap on how fast a non-homestead property’s assessment can climb each year drops from 10 percent to 5 percent, for county, city and special district levies, not school levies. New Florida residents who weren’t permanent as of December 31, 2026 would get an exemption on the first $50,000 of assessed value for five years, then the full exemption starting their fifth year. All of it takes effect January 1, 2027.
When Would This Show Up on My Tax Bill?
Not for over a year, even in the best case. The Pinellas County Property Appraiser’s office, writing about the same amendment, puts the earliest effect on 2027 TRIM notices mailed in August and the tax bill that follows in November 2027. Nothing about this touches anyone’s bill right now.
How Much Would I Actually Save?
Depends entirely on where you live and what your local millage rate is, and nobody can give you an exact number yet. Pinellas County’s own estimate, using its 2025 countywide non-school rate of 12.2011 mills, puts the savings at roughly $1,203 for 2027 and $2,423 for 2028, off a current full homestead exemption of $51,411. That office is clear this is illustrative, not a promise. The figures assume no change in millage and no non-ad valorem assessments, and they’re Pinellas numbers, not Duval, Clay or anywhere else in Northeast Florida. Your own county appraiser’s office would have to run the same math against your own rate.
One detail that gets missed: the 5 percent cap limits how fast your assessed value can grow. It doesn’t cap your tax rate. The city, county and special districts still set their own millage, so a slower-growing assessment doesn’t by itself guarantee a smaller bill.
Is This Actually Going to Pass?
Unclear. A poll from NBC6 and Telemundo 51, published October 7 and covering 625 registered Florida voters surveyed between September 28 and October 1, found 55 percent support statewide, below the 60 percent threshold the amendment needs. Southeast Florida came back lower still, at 48 percent yes against 31 percent no and 21 percent undecided. Among the no voters, 55 percent pointed to cuts in local services as their reason, which tracks with the Legislature’s own Revenue Estimating Conference putting the hit to local non-school revenue at roughly $4.95 billion in the first year and $8.78 billion in the second.
Why This Matters If You’re Behind Right Now
It doesn’t, not yet. Property tax sits alongside insurance, the HOA bill and the roof as one of the costs that keeps climbing on a household whose income didn’t move with it. Amendment 3, if it passes, is relief that starts showing up on a bill mailed in 2027. Anyone behind on a mortgage today is dealing with this month’s numbers, not next year’s ballot measure.
In other news, Florida’s insurance regulator just opened the first public window into how many hurricane claims from Isaias are actually getting paid.
How Many Hurricane Insurance Claims Actually Get Denied in Florida?
Nobody can say yet, including the state. Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation issued its first data call on Isaias October 12, and the first insurer filing was due at noon today.
What Is the State Actually Collecting?
Every insurer writing homeowners, mobile home or private flood coverage in Florida has to file a Catastrophe Reporting Form twice this week, once today and again Thursday. The form asks for the number of claims reported, how many are still open with or without a payment made, how many are closed with or without payment, and the county and zip code tied to each one. Where a company can give a reason a claim closed without payment, it’s supposed to.
That closed-without-payment column, broken out by county, is the piece that doesn’t exist anywhere else right now. A denial today is a letter in somebody’s mailbox. Once this data comes in, it’s a line in a filing the state can see and, eventually, might publish.
Will Any of This Become Public?
Possibly, not automatically. OIR’s own language says it may use the aggregated numbers in public reports, and it has done exactly that for past storms, publishing total estimated insured losses by name: Ian at just over $22.2 billion, Irma at nearly $20.7 billion, Milton at $5.6 billion. Those are loss totals, not claim counts or denial rates, and there’s no Isaias figure yet because the first filing is due today.
Why This Matters If You’re Waiting on a Check
If your claim has been sitting with no answer, you’ve had nothing to measure that against. This is the mechanism that eventually produces something to compare it to, county by county. A roof that never gets repaired because the claim stalled doesn’t stay a home-maintenance issue. It becomes the thing a lender’s appraiser flags when a house goes up for sale, the same way an unfixed roof did when I wrote about hurricane claim deadlines here Sunday.
Also of note today, the state widened who’s allowed to work on storm-damaged roofs in 30 counties, and almost none of them are in my own market.
Do I Need a Licensed Contractor to Put a Tarp on My Roof?
No, and that was already true before this storm. Florida law exempts installing a non-permanent emergency tarp from needing a roofing license. What changed this week is everything around that tarp.
What Did Florida Just Change for Roof Repair?
Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation issued two emergency orders, dated October 11, covering 30 named counties hit by Isaias. In those counties, a general, building or residential contractor can now do roofing work directly instead of subcontracting it out, and registered contractors can work outside their normal geographic territory. Electrical and alarm contractors got the same geographic exemption. HOA and condo board directors got their certification and continuing education requirements suspended for 30 days. A business can remove water-damaged materials without a mold remediation license, as long as it isn’t holding itself out as a mold remediator for hire.
Does This Apply to My County?
Only Baker, out of my own seven. Duval, Clay, Nassau, St. Johns, Putnam and Flagler aren’t on DBPR’s list of 30, which doesn’t line up with FEMA’s 27 or the Governor’s either, as I’ve already pointed out. If you’re in one of my six uncovered counties, none of this changed who’s allowed to touch your roof.
What’s the Catch?
The usual license check tells you less this month than it did last month, in the counties where this applies. DBPR still publishes its own tools for checking who you’re hiring: a license verification lookup, a page of red flags for unlicensed activity, and a list of known scam listings. A deposit handed to someone who never shows up again turns a repairable roof into a bill that doesn’t go away, on top of whatever else a household is already carrying.
Jacksonville, Florida is my market, and distressed property is the bulk of what I work. Happy to talk through any of this.
JimArmstrong904@gmail.com, or (904) 671-4161 if a call’s easier.
Jim Armstrong, REALTOR® · Momentum Realty · SFR® (Short Sales and Foreclosure Resource) certified. This is general information, not legal, tax, or financial advice.
Momentum Realty is not associated with the government, and our service is not approved by the government or your lender.
