As Florida voters weigh a proposed property tax cut on the November ballot, realtors, sheriffs and local officials are clashing over whether Amendment 3 will strip funding from local police, fire and emergency services.
The Vote Yes on 3 website run by Florida Realtors — the largest professional trade association in the state — says Amendment 3’s opponents are overhyping the risk of massive cuts to public services.
The ballot measure “requires local governments to use property taxes solely for public safety, schools, infrastructure, natural resources and other critical needs,” the website says.
Some Florida politicians who support the amendment, such as GOP gubernatorial nominee U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, also say it will protect public safety funding.
“The governor and the Legislature made sure that the first money that local governments spend has to be spent on local law enforcement and local fire departments and emergency personnel,” Donalds said Oct. 1 in Lakeland.
Opponents say the opposite. A TV ad from Vote No on 3, a coalition that includes sheriffs and city and county leaders, says 60% of property taxes go to public safety.
“Amendment 3 means deep cuts to sheriffs, firefighters and first responders,” the ad says.
“Law enforcement, (emergency medical services) is the largest chunk of city and county budgets — period,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said Sept. 15. “To think you can have a draconian action like Amendment 3 and not affect your safety and security is not reality.”
Democratic gubernatorial nominee David Jolly said he is voting no over concerns it could “defund” law enforcement and local services.
Does the ballot measure safeguard public safety funding, or drastically reduce it?
The amendment’s language requires remaining tax revenue to be used for public safety and several other local services, but it stops short of mandating police, fire and EMS be funded first or setting a minimum funding level.
“Nothing in the amendment guarantees police or fire get funded first, or are not cut,” said Jeff Brandes, a former Republican state senator and founder of the nonprofit Florida Policy Project. “It only says they are among the things property tax revenue can fund. There is no requirement. It is not a priority of funding.”
The Florida Realtors organization supporting Amendment 3 acknowledged the measure doesn’t require specific public safety spending levels and said the state Legislature will need to provide additional guidance.
“Voters should understand that Amendment 3 is first and foremost an affordability measure,” the Florida Realtors statement said. “Florida can prioritize public safety and provide property-tax relief, and those goals should not be viewed as mutually exclusive.”
Public policy experts told PolitiFact the decrease in tax revenue coupled with rising costs for items, such as equipment and insurance, will likely shrink public safety funding in many cities and counties.
Maintaining public safety funding, which makes up a significant portion of local budgets, would likely require large cuts to other local services, such as public parks and libraries, or new taxes and fees.
What will the amendment do?
If 60% of voters approve it, Amendment 3 will raise the threshold for taxing primary residences, or homestead properties, from its current level of exempting $50,000 on the assessed value to $150,000 in 2027 and to $250,000 in 2028. Property taxes that fund schools are protected.
For a $400,000 primary residence in Broward County, the amendment would decrease the property tax bill by about $2,672 in 2028 — assuming the county keeps its millage rate the same and there are no non-ad valorem tax increases, which are flat fees that fund specific local services.
The measure also requires the Legislature to create a schedule to continue raising the exemption after 2028 to the “full assessed value” of homes — eventually eliminating all non-school property taxes on every primary home in the state.
The Florida Legislature’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research estimated the measure will cut $13.7 billion in local government revenue in its first two years. It would reduce local revenue by nearly $12 billion annually thereafter.
Does the ballot language protect public safety funds?
The amendment says it “requires counties and municipalities to use property taxes solely for public safety, education and schools, infrastructure, natural resources, bond debt service, retirement benefits for employees, and operations and administration.” It says “other expenditures” may also be approved.
Experts said the language lacks regulatory teeth. Public safety is grouped with a host of other services, putting police and fire departments in competition with dilapidated roads and government payrolls for a smaller pool of money.
Jared Walczak, a senior fellow at the Tax Foundation, said the measure limits the uses for tax revenue and includes catch-alls, such as the authorization for local governments to use remaining money on “other expenditures.”
“The provision doesn’t appear to restrict how property tax revenue can be spent in any meaningful way,” Walczak said. “It also doesn’t require or guarantee any specific expenditures.”
Brandes singled out the allowance for “operations and administration” as broad. “What isn’t operations and administration?” he said.
An earlier version of Amendment 3 specified “ensuring” core services, but a judge ordered Attorney General James Uthmeier to rewrite the measure with less misleading wording. The judge wrote that “by substantially reducing the local property tax base,” the amendment was “likely to decrease the revenues available to local governments to fund core services.”
Even with the amendment’s final wording, “any mention of protection is speculation,” Esteban Leonardo Santis, director of research at the left-leaning Florida Policy Institute, said.
High tax revenue doesn’t guarantee a cushion from cuts
Many Amendment 3 supporters point to a surge in Florida’s property tax collections in recent years as evidence that local governments can absorb the cuts without scaling back emergency services.
In 2025, Florida’s schools, counties, cities and special districts took in about $59.1 billion in property tax revenue, a nearly 75% increase from 2019. Much of this has come from the post- pandemic real estate boom, which surged property values.
Some major metropolitan areas, such as Miami-Dade and Hillsborough counties, have seen expanded payrolls and significant spending increases on administrative overhead.
But not all districts are equal.
While large cities with substantial commercial tax bases may have room for cuts in their budgets, hundreds of smaller municipalities and rural counties operate on tight margins.
In 176 of Florida’s 276 cities, spending on police, fire and EMS exceeds all property tax revenue collected, a 2025 Florida League of Cities analysis found. If the amendment passes, with the $250,000 homestead exemption, “85 cities would not be able to fund public safety at current levels even if every other property tax-funded service was eliminated,” the study said.
In 55 of Florida’s 67 counties, public safety is the largest budget item, taking about 85 cents of every property tax dollar, according to a Florida Association of Counties analysis.
There’s also the cost of government — from fire trucks to insurance — which has increased faster than inflation.
Experts said these factors all but guarantee that the amendment’s revenue decrease will either force local governments to shrink public safety funding or, to maintain it, cut money to other local services, such as public parks and libraries.
Cities and counties could try to offset losses by raising tax rates on properties still eligible to be taxed, or by relying more heavily on non-ad valorem taxes. Those aren’t subject to exemptions, including for homesteads, and can include local sales taxes, motor fuel taxes, tourist development taxes and utility taxes.
“Many (governments) will likely adopt a combination of responses, raising taxes and fees while still cutting some services — including cuts to public safety budgets,” Walczak said.
Our Sources
- VoteYeson3.com, Accessed Oct. 3, 2026
- VoteNoonAmendment3.com, Accessed Oct. 3, 2026
- YouTube, Vote No On Amendment 3 ‘Math’, Sept. 20, 2026
- YouTube, Amendment 3 Press Conference, Sept. 10, 2026
- C-SPAN, Vice President JD Vance Campaigns for Florida GOP Candidates, Oct. 1, 2026
- Florida Department of State, INCREASED HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION; LOWER CAP ON INCREASES IN NON-HOMESTEAD PROPERTY ASSESSMENTS, Accessed Oct. 3, 2026
- Florida Chamber of Commerce, Property Tax Amendment Brief: Current Law vs. Proposed Changes, Accessed Oct. 5, 2026
- Florida Office of Economic & Demographic Research, Revenue Estimating Conference on proposed amendment, June-July 2026
- WESH, Amendment 3 critics: Public safety will suffer, Sept. 15, 2026
- Florida Policy Institute, Voter Guide: What Floridians Should Know About Amendment 3, Sept. 15, 2026
- Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Tallying Up the Impact of Florida’s Property Tax Ballot Measure on Local Communities, Sept. 29, 2026
- Florida Association of Counties, Understanding Florida’s Property Tax System,Accessed Oct. 5, 2026
- Florida League of Cities, FISCAL STRUCTURE & REVENUE RESILIENCE OF FLORIDA MUNICIPALITIES, December 2025
- Florida Revenue, A Florida Homeowner’s Guide: Millage, Accessed Oct. 12, 2026
- Florida Politics, Study: Ending property taxes would unevenly drain budgets, hit residential communities hardest, Dec. 17, 2025
- Email interview, Jared Walczak, senior fellow at the Tax Foundation, Oct. 6, 2026
- Email interview, Esteban Leonardo Santis, director of research at the Florida Policy Institute, Oct. 6, 2026
- Email interview, Fern Senra-James, spokesperson for Florida Realtors, Oct. 6, 2026
- Email/phone interview, Jeff Brandes former state senator, founder and CEO of Florida Policy Project, Oct. 6, 2026
