Florida homeowners have watched local government property tax collections nearly double in seven years.
Now a fix is on the November ballot – and 65% of Democrats just voted to kill it.
What those Democrats said to defend their position tells you everything you need to know about who they actually represent.
87% of Republicans Already Know the Answer
The numbers are brutal and simple.
A new Sachs Media poll of 850 Florida voters found 87% of Republicans support Amendment 3 – the "Save Our Homes from Excessive Property Taxes" measure headed to the November 3 ballot.
Independents back it 62%.
Democrats? 35%.
Governor DeSantis put the scale of the problem in plain terms during a recent Bradenton appearance: "In 2019, they got $32 billion. Today, they're getting $60 billion. That's almost doubling the property tax revenue in a seven-year period."
Local governments took that money.
They spent it.
Now that homeowners want some of it back, Democrats are screaming about service cuts.
The amendment would raise Florida's homestead exemption from $50,000 to $150,000 in 2027 and then to $250,000 in 2028 – eliminating non-school property taxes for roughly 60% of Florida homeowners who qualify for the exemption.
School taxes stay protected.
Public safety funding stays protected – the amendment directs whatever property taxes remain to law enforcement, fire service, and emergency medical services first.
Local Governments Built Empires on Your Money
Look at where that $28 billion revenue increase actually came from.
It wasn't new construction or population growth alone.
It came from rising home values hitting homeowners who didn't ask for an appreciation windfall and can't pay their mortgage with it.
A retiree on a fixed income whose house tripled in value didn't get richer.
She got a tax bill she can barely pay.
The Florida Legislature passed Amendment 3 on party-line votes during the June 2 special session – House 75–26, Senate 30–9 – with three Senate Democrats crossing over to vote yes.
https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/2059645468724838742?s=20
Three Democrats understood what their own party refused to admit: this is about whether the government gets to keep extracting money from people who just want to stay in their homes.
The opposition – a political committee called "Vote No on 3" – warned the amendment would gut the services that make communities thrive.
Manatee County Commissioner Tal Saddique compared it to 2008.
What actually happened in 2008 was that local governments had to live within their means for a few years.
They survived.
Democrats Couldn't Win the Vote So They Went to Court
Here is how desperate the opposition has become.
Amendment 3 needs 60% of voters to pass – the supermajority threshold Florida requires for all constitutional amendments.
The poll shows 64% support statewide right now – four points above the threshold, with four months until election day.
Democrats can't beat it with votes, so they filed a lawsuit in Leon County Circuit Court arguing the ballot summary is "biased and misleading."
Two former mayors and a newly formed nonprofit – not voters – trying to kill a tax cut in a courtroom because they know they can't kill it at the ballot box.
The No On 3 campaign released a statement accusing the amendment of handing "massive tax breaks to billionaires and large corporations."
The exemption only applies to homestead property – your primary residence.
Billionaires don't use the homestead exemption.
Homeowners do.
The poll found something even the No On 3 campaign can't spin: renters back the amendment at 64% – nearly identical to homeowner support at 65%.
https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/2069934935931019692?s=20
Renters understand that when a landlord's property tax bill gets cut, rent pressure eases.
Democrats told renters this amendment would hurt them.
Renters didn't believe it.
Florida Is Watching Republicans Deliver
This is what Republican governance looks like when it works.
Florida home values surged – a genuine economic victory – and then local governments used that surge as a reason to extract more money from the same homeowners who created the value.
DeSantis spent more than a year fighting to give that money back.
The Legislature adjusted his original proposal – protecting school district levies, building in a five-year residency clock for new arrivals, and guaranteeing first responder budgets first claim on remaining tax revenue – and the result is still the most significant property tax relief in Florida history.
Sixty percent of Florida homeowners would owe zero non-school property tax once the $250,000 exemption fully takes effect in 2028.
Sixty percent.
Democrats oppose that at 65%.
The party that spent years telling you they were fighting for working families just showed you in a poll that two-thirds of them want the government to keep your money.
That's not a policy disagreement.
That's who they are.
Sources:
- Jesse Scheckner, "Poll: Property tax amendment has 64% voter support, but partisan divide is sharp," Florida Politics, June 26, 2026.
- "Senate Passes Historic Property Tax Cut for Florida Homeowners," Florida Senate, June 2, 2026.
- "Florida property tax cut plan backed by DeSantis heads to November ballot after legislative approval," CBS Miami, June 3, 2026.
- "Gov. DeSantis distances himself from property tax measure on the Florida ballot," CBS Miami, June 30, 2026.
- "Poll: Florida's property tax relief amendment has enough support to pass," WFLA, July 7, 2026.
