What the Florida Property Tax Amendment Would Mean for Your Lee County Bill

The ballot title voters will see reads Increased Homestead Exemption; Lower Cap on Increases in Non-Homestead Property Assessments. A judge ordered the original wording rewritten in August 2026 because it read as biased, and the state filed replacement language on August 13.

Three things would change if it passes.

The homestead exemption on non-school taxes rises to $150,000 on January 1, 2027, then to $250,000 on January 1, 2028. From 2029 the amount adjusts for inflation. The exemption today is $51,411, made up of the first $25,000 plus an inflation-adjusted $26,411.

The annual cap on assessment increases for non-homestead property falls from 10% to 5% in 2027. That applies to rentals, second homes and commercial property, and it covers assessed value for non-school taxes rather than the whole bill.

Counties and cities would also have to spend property tax revenue on a defined list. It covers public safety, schools, infrastructure, natural resources, bond debt service, employee retirement, and operations and administration. Other spending can still be approved unless general law prohibits it.

The Legislature passed the measure on June 2, 2026, by 75 to 26 in the House and 30 to 9 in the Senate.

This is the part most people miss, and it matters most to anyone planning a move.

If you are a Florida resident as of December 31, 2026, you qualify for the larger exemption as soon as it takes effect. That holds whether you already have a homestead or establish one later.

If you were not a Florida resident on December 31, 2026, you start with a $50,000 exemption on non-school taxes, adjusted for inflation from 2028, once you qualify for homestead. The larger exemption begins with the fifth year of your exemption, so a homestead first exempt in 2027 would reach the larger amount in 2031.

The test is where you lived on December 31, 2026, not when you buy. A Florida resident who buys a Lee County home in 2028 is in the first group. Someone who moves here in 2027 is in the second, whenever they buy.

The enrolled text sets this out as the fifth year of exemption rather than a count of years of residency. The two are not the same test, and the ballot summary filed in August uses the fifth-year wording.

From 2030, a county or city could shorten that wait for a critical local need by a two-thirds vote of its governing body.

If you are weighing a move, the date is worth knowing well ahead of time. Residency, homestead eligibility and the filing are three separate steps. A purchase on its own does not establish residency. Check your position with the Lee County Property Appraiser before you plan around it.

Enter your assessed value to see what the change would mean for your own bill. Your assessed value is on your TRIM notice or your parcel record, and it is not the same as your market value or what you paid.

A few worked examples, at the Cape Coral rate.

The saving flattens above roughly $250,000 of assessed value, because the exemption cannot exceed the value it is applied to. A homestead assessed at $150,000 reaches its limit in 2027 and gains nothing further in 2028.

Treat these as illustrations of one line on the bill, not a forecast of your total bill. They assume you qualify for homestead and hold no other exemptions. They assume no change in assessed value or millage. They compare against the 2026 exemption, which rises with inflation on its own, so the real gain would be a little smaller. School taxes and non-ad valorem charges continue in every case.

Three numbers drive a Florida property tax bill, and mixing them up is where most confusion starts.

Market value, which the county calls just value, is what your home would sell for. Your bill is not based on it.

Assessed value is the capped version your bill starts from. For a homestead, Save Our Homes limits how fast it can rise each year.

Taxable value is what remains after exemptions, and it is the number your bill is calculated on. Because the first $25,000 exemption applies to all taxes while the additional $26,411 applies only to non-school taxes, a homestead has two taxable values: a higher one for schools and a lower one for everything else. The amendment changes only the non-school side.

Buyers should not assume the seller’s tax bill becomes theirs. The cap starts over after a sale and the assessed value resets toward market value. A long-held home can carry a bill that climbs sharply for the next owner. Estimate from the likely reset value rather than the current bill.

If you are moving from another Florida homestead, you may be able to bring your own Save Our Homes difference with you. That is called portability, and it is worth asking the Property Appraiser about before you assume the reset applies in full.

Sellers get a mixed picture. Lower future bills reduce the cost of owning, which may support values over time, though that is not certain.

Investors and second-home owners do not get the homestead exemption. They would get the assessment cap cut from 10% to 5%, which slows how fast assessed value can rise for non-school taxes and makes yearly costs more predictable.

Owners often expect a softer market to lower the tax bill. In 2026 that did not happen. Lee County’s preliminary 2026 roll showed total just value slightly lower than the year before while total taxable value rose. Those are preliminary figures and the certified roll can differ, so take your own numbers from the Property Appraiser’s tax roll rather than from a countywide percentage.

Save Our Homes is the reason. Florida voters approved the cap in 1992 and it took effect in 1995. It limits how much your assessed value can rise each year, to the lesser of 3% or inflation. If your assessed value sits below market value, it can keep climbing even when prices cool. Countywide totals also include new construction.

Lower homestead bills mean less revenue for the governments that rely on them, and the estimates have moved as the models have been reworked.

Reporting on Lee County’s own modelling put the loss at about $129.7 million and $240.8 million in June, and at roughly $121 million and $159 million after the September workshop. Later workshops have been reported lower again. These come from reporting rather than from the county’s published models, and the figures may not cover the same funds or years, so treat them as a direction of travel and check the latest workshop before quoting any of them.

Cape Coral now publishes an estimated loss of $31.1 million in year one and $56.9 million in year two, citing the state Office of Economic and Demographic Research. An earlier city figure of $46 million has been superseded.

Those are projections, not results. Governments can respond by replacing revenue, adding fees, restraining spending or reducing services, and which of those happens is a local decision that has not been made.

Start with your assessed value, not your market value or your purchase price. You will find it on your TRIM notice or on your parcel record with the Lee County Property Appraiser.

Subtract your exemptions to get your taxable value, remembering that schools use a different figure. Multiply each taxable value by the matching millage rate and divide by 1,000. Then add non-ad valorem charges, which are such as solid waste and stormwater, billed on a basis other than value. They do not change under this amendment.

One caution on timing. The August TRIM notice shows proposed taxes and hearing dates. It is not the final bill, and the adopted rates can differ.