Proposal To Gradually End Property Taxes Advances In House Committee

By Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix

January 15, 2026

A proposed constitutional amendment to go before the voters that would gradually increase the homestead exemption for non-school-related property taxes by $100,000 each year for 10 years advanced in a House committee Thursday.

The resolution (HJR 203), sponsored by Rep. Monique Miller, R-Palm Bay, would, if approved first by the Legislature and then by the voters in November, take effect on Jan. 1, 2027.

“Given that the median home price is about $350,000, most Floridians will have zero non-school ad valorem property taxes by 2030,” Miller told the State House Affairs Committee.

Her proposal is one of a group of measures on property taxes making its way through the House, but whether the Legislature will approve it to go before the voters is in question. There is no Senate companion to Miller’s resolution, and Senate President Ben Albritton and Gov. Ron DeSantis have already said that they believe there should be only one constitutional amendment on the topic in November.

The concept of reducing or eliminating property taxes is controversial, with representatives from some local governments claiming it would devastate their budgets.

The state’s Revenue Estimating Conference has estimated that if the measure passes, it would have a negative cash impact of $4.4 billion and a negative recurring impact of $13.3 billion on local non-school property tax revenues in fiscal year 2027/2028, according to a bill analysis.

Rep. Lindsay Cross, D-St.Petersburg, said she had seen estimates that, under Miller’s proposal, 40 Florida counties would lose close to 40% of their taxing base in the first year.

Jeff Scala with the Florida Association of Counties repeated that statistic, forecasting a $2.9 billion hit to counties in the first year and that by the third or fourth year, “many of the counties are wiped off the rolls.”

“The math doesn’t work. This is fiscal crisis by design,” he said.

Carveouts for emergency services

Proponents of a major property tax reduction such as DeSantis and Florida CFO Blaise Ingoglia contend that local government spending increased disproportionately from 2019 to 2024, and that local governments could afford a reduction in property tax revenue.

Charles Chapman with the Florida League of Cities said that notion was misleading. He agreed property tax revenues have increased in recent years, but said so has the cost of providing local government services, “including facility and infrastructure construction, employee recruitment and retention, [and the] cost of capital equipment replacement.”

Among the members of the public who spoke against the resolution was Dave Shula, a commissioner with Juniper Inlet Colony, a small incorporated town in Palm Beach County. He said that 81% of his city’s revenue comes from property taxes, and the budget this year for police and firefighters is $2.1 million. But if property taxes were eliminated, he said, the city would have just $900,000 in revenue from other sources.

“That would significantly affect our ability to handle that,” said Shula, the son of the late Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula.

The resolution originally would have banned local governments from reducing total funding for law enforcement below levels budgeted in the 2025-2026 or 2026-2027 fiscal years. An amendment was approved in the committee to create a carveout for firefighters and other first responders from having their budgets reduced.

The resolution has one more committee stop before reaching the House floor. A Senate companion has yet to be filed. Proposed constitutional amendments must be approved by three-fifths of both chambers to get on the ballot.

Meanwhile, a poll by Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy on behalf of the nonpartisan Florida Policy Institute released Thursday found that 63% of Florida voters — including 73% of Democrats, 58% of Republicans, and 60% of independents — believe property insurance relief is a higher priority than property tax relief. Only 32% of voters said that property tax relief was the higher priority.

The poll also found that roughly half of Florida voters, 49%, opposed elimination of the non-school property tax on homesteads upon hearing that such a move could result in local governments cutting services or implementing new taxes to make up for the lost revenue. Only 39% of Florida voters supported the proposal, while 12% were undecided.

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