Conservation & Water Management Funding Losses Under Florida Amendment 3

This analysis uses the final 2025 real property tax roll NAL files from the Florida Department of Revenue and 2025 millage rates from each county to estimate parcel level property tax bills and the resulting revenue loss for each taxing authority from the proposed amendment.

Under the proposed changes permanent residents as of 12/31/2026 would have their second homestead exemption that applies to non-school assessed value increased to $150,000 in 2027, $250,000 in 2028, and indexed to inflation by CPI for 2029 and later. New permanent residents after 12/31/2026 would only be eligible for a smaller exemption of $50,000 for the first five years. Additionally, the proposal would reduce the limit on the growth of the non-school assessed value for non-homestead parcels from 10% to 5%.

For these estimates we use the 2025 homestead exemption status as a proxy for homestead eligibility under the proposal. We recalculate non-school taxable value for each year replacing the second homestead exemption by the applicable exemption amount under Amendment 3. We then determine the complete set of millage rates for each parcel, by matching on the Taxing Authority Code – a unique identifier for the overlapping set of authorities whose jurisdiction includes the parcel – with the 2025 millage rates from each county. From this, we multiply the non-school taxable value by the applicable non-school millage rates to estimate annual property tax bills under the proposal and compare them with current law to determine loss in revenue for each taxing jurisdiction.

Annual values are all adjusted to account for countywide assessed value growth projections from the Ad Valorem Estimating Conference and to incorporate several assumptions from the official Florida Revenue Estimating Conference analysis. These proportional countywide adjustments are designed to include the state’s estimated revenue impact of reducing the assessment cap for non-homestead properties from 10% to 5%, and in-migration of new permanent residents.

Minor adjustments were made to the Hospitals and Children's Services Councils & Trusts categories to incorporate prior additional analytical work in these categories by Florida Policy Institute.

For more information on the underlying assumptions of the Revenue Estimating Conference analysis see https://edr.state.fl.us/Content/conferences/revenueimpact/archives/2026F/_pdf/page682-699.pdf