What’s Really in Governor DeSantis’s Proposed Property Tax Elimination Plan – Top 3 Takeaways – May 29th, 2026
Takeaway #1 The devil is in the details
On Wednesday, Governor DeSantis announced his plan to eliminate homesteaded property taxes in Florida. On Thursday, South Florida State Senator Bryan Avila formally proposed it. The proposed constitutional amendment known as Save our Homes from Excessive Property Taxes is 17 total pages in length and the official legislative summary provided reads like this: Proposing amendments to the State Constitution to revise the limitation on annual assessment increases for specified real property, to increase the homestead exemption, to provide a limitation on the use of ad valorem taxes levied by counties and municipalities, to provide an effective date, and to provide for the creation of a trust fund for specified purposes, etc. You’ll notice that nowhere within that summary is a specific mention of the elimination of homesteaded property taxes. That’s key because; as I mentioned Thursday morning, before the filing of the amendment, much more information was needed before we’d know for sure what the proposal would end up being. I’d detected a bit of a disconnect between the initial DeSantis fact sheet and much of the reporting. As it turns out, there was a rather large disconnect but with the legislation in hand I can now breakdown what the implications behind the proposal mean. The devil is always in the details and to be sure there are many... so in the interest of explaining this as plainly and in as straight forward of a way as can be it’s like this...
Takeaway #2 What the proposed amendment means to you
The first thing to know is that there are potential benefits for all property owners and two key dates that are in play with the proposal. Let’s start with the basics for homestead property owners. The two key dates to know are January 1st of 2027 and January 1st of 2028. What happens on those days? If the proposed amendment passes, the first round of property tax relief kicks in on January 1st of next year, tripling the property tax exemption from $50,000 to $150,000. Then one year later on January 1st of 2028 – the property tax exemption would rise by another $100,000 to a total of $250,000. At that point most homesteaded property owners in the state would be exempt from paying property taxes. There’s also one other key cog that would kick in as of January of 2028. The homestead exemption amount would then be adjusted for inflation annually. But what if you own non-homesteaded properties? There is potentially a bit of a benefit in the new proposal for you too. Under current law, non-homesteaded property taxes may rise by up to 10% per year...and in recent years most business owners and second homeowners have been subjected to this. Should this amendment pass, it would cap the annual increase in non-school property taxes at 5%. This would apply to non-homesteaded residential buildings of up to 9 units and for most small businesses. That should marginally help mitigate small businesses being taxed out of their businesses, and for landlords to lower future increases in rent rates. It’s hard to call a lower potential future increase in property taxes “relief”, but it’s something which of course is better than nothing. Then there’s the matter of portability. Let’s say you have a homesteaded property in the state of Florida, and you’d like to relocate to another homesteaded property in Florida. How much of your property tax benefit may you take with you? The answer is up to $500,000, that by the way is the exact same as it is today...so there’s no change or added benefit for portability in for you. But you might be wondering, because many have been reporting, why are we talking about details like portability and why are we talking about indexing homestead exemptions for inflation starting in 2028, when in theory the proposed constitutional amendment calls for an end to homesteaded property taxes?
Takeaway #3 What changes in theory...
These two concepts that might seem contradictory (and in the case of this proposed constitutional amendment) are both true. 1) It can be true that the proposed amendment calls for an end to homesteaded property taxes and 2) It can be true that the proposed amendment will only ever theoretically lead to the end of homesteaded property taxes. Yesterday – prior to the passage of the bill, I flagged what I saw as holes in reporting pertaining to what was being bandied about as a proposed amendment that would eliminate all homesteaded property taxes. That’s because the DeSantis fact sheet didn’t produce anything suggesting that it would actually happen, or just as importantly how it would actually happen. So, what’s the deal? Here’s the exact language in the bill: The legislature shall, by general law, prescribe a uniform procedure for counties, municipalities, and school districts, for their respective levies, to increase the amount of assessed valuation exempt from taxation under paragraph (1), up to all remaining assessed valuation. So, there you go. They shall do it! You may notice that there’s no timeline or specifics tied to it. So, for example, in theory there’s nothing saying that the legislature would have to phase out homesteaded property taxes within your lifetime or in anyone’s lifetime...just that they shall. Now on one hand that might seem like a bit of a cop out. On another hand, it may be a stroke of strategic genius. You may notice that the provision says by general law... This means a simple majority of the legislature, and the signature of the governor in the future could get that done if this passes. That might be much more viable than spelling out all of the details today and trying to get both 3/5’ths of the legislature to agree and 60% of voters in November. So, while it may be only theoretical in the future if this passes, it could also come about pretty quickly if a simple majority and a governor were to agree on a plan to do so in the future. So there you go – that's a starting point for what you should know as the debate is about to begin...