Florida retirees on fixed incomes are losing their homes because the government keeps raising their property taxes.
DeSantis just forced the legislature to stop it.
This November, Florida voters will decide whether to lock in the biggest property tax cut in state history – or let local bureaucrats keep the windfall.
What DeSantis Actually Built
The amendment, HJR 1F, passed the Florida Legislature in a special session DeSantis called specifically because lawmakers failed to act during the regular session.
The House passed it 75–26. The Senate voted 30–9.
Both votes broke almost entirely along party lines – Republicans for, Democrats against.
Democrats called it "a boneheaded move."
House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell said there was "no plan to make local governments whole."
There's never a plan when you put taxpayers first.
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That's what makes it rare.
The amendment would raise Florida's homestead exemption – the portion of your home's value shielded from taxation – from the current $50,000 to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028.
DeSantis has said approximately 60% of Florida homeowners would owe zero property taxes by 2028 under the plan.
The amendment also caps annual assessment increases on non-homestead properties at 5% per year, down from the current 10% – protection for landlords, investors, and small business owners who have been getting crushed by runaway valuations.
Why Local Officials Are Panicking
Here is what they do not want you to notice.
Florida's local governments have gorged themselves on a property tax windfall created entirely by rising home values – values they had nothing to do with creating.
Property taxes are not set by a council vote on your specific home.
They are set against assessed value, and when home prices explode – as they have across Florida for the past decade – tax bills explode with them, even if the millage rate never changes.
Local officials collected that windfall. They hired staff. They expanded programs. They built bureaucracies.
They got addicted to revenue that was never theirs in the first place.
Now DeSantis is pulling the plug and they are screaming about libraries.
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The mayor of Sanford warned the exemption increase alone could cost that single city $15 million. Other municipalities are projecting similar losses.
The amendment addresses this directly – it restricts how local governments can spend remaining ad valorem revenue to core services: public safety, infrastructure, education, and employee retirement benefits.
It does not just cut their money.
It tells them what they can spend it on.
This Has Always Been the Fight
Florida voters have been here before.
In 2018, the Legislature passed a $25,000 homestead exemption increase and put it on the ballot – at the time, Speaker Richard Corcoran called it "one of, if not the largest, tax cut in the history of Florida at $645 million."
Florida voters approved it.
That measure was a $645 million cut.
HJR 1F is projected to cut local government revenue by $4.6 billion in year one and $8.4 billion annually by 2028.
This is a structural shift – the kind that takes generations to undo.
And that's exactly why DeSantis called the special session.
The regular legislative session ended in March without a Senate vote on property tax reform – the House had already passed a full elimination bill 80–30, but the Senate let it die. So DeSantis came back.
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He called the session himself. He set the agenda.
He forced lawmakers to choose.
That is what conservative leadership looks like.
What Happens in November
For HJR 1F to become law, 60% of Florida voters must approve it in November.
Florida's current political landscape makes that threshold achievable – but not automatic.
Local officials, teachers unions, and Democrat-aligned groups will spend heavily to defeat it.
They will argue that schools lose funding.
They will not tell you the amendment specifically exempts school district taxes.
They will argue public safety suffers.
They will not tell you the amendment mandates public safety as a spending priority.
They will argue the poor get hurt most.
They will not mention that lower-income homeowners with modestly valued homes benefit most from a flat exemption increase.
The deception campaign is already starting.
What Florida homeowners need to understand is simple: property tax revenue collected by local governments doubled in seven years.
Their mortgage payments did not double.
Their income did not double. But their tax bills did.
DeSantis built an exit from that trap and put it directly in voters' hands.
Vote yes in November or watch the meter keep running.
Sources:
- Ron DeSantis, "Governor Ron DeSantis Announces Special Session on Property Tax Relief," Executive Office of the Governor, May 27, 2026.
- Florida Senate, "Senate Passes Historic Property Tax Cut for Florida Homeowners," Florida Senate Office of the President, June 2, 2026.
- "Florida Legislature Approves DeSantis Property Tax Cut Plan for November Ballot," Fox 13 Tampa Bay, June 2026.
- "Property Tax Overhaul Headed to Ballot," Jacksonville Today, June 2026.
- "Florida Property Tax Proposal: 2026 Details & Analysis," Tax Foundation, June 2026.
- Danielle Shockey, "Florida Tax Showdown: Will Voters Pass The Biggest Property Tax Cut In State History?" Tampa Free Press, June 9, 2026.
