Amendment 3 skips your school tax, and school boards are on the same ballot

Amendment 3, the homestead tax cut on the Nov. 3 ballot, leaves the school portion of every Florida property tax bill where it is, the state’s own estimate shows, while counties, cities and special districts lose $4.9 billion in its first year (Florida EDR). On the same ballot, at least 13 school boards, including Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, ask voters to keep or add a 1 mill school tax, and as of state records checked Oct. 13, Florida Realtors had written $19.5 million in seven checks, all of the yes campaign’s money apart from $10.33 in bank interest (school board records; Division of Elections).

The state Revenue Estimating Conference, which reviewed the amendment June 12 and July 10, puts the school column at 0.0 in every year and in every county. Non-school local revenue falls $4.93 billion in fiscal 2027-28, $8.71 billion in 2028-29, $9.65 billion in 2029-30 and $10.7 billion in 2030-31, and $11.8 billion a year once fully in place (Florida EDR, July 10). The mechanism is in the same estimate: the amendment applies the first $25,000 homestead exemption only to school assessed value and replaces the second exemption with one “applicable only to non-school taxes” that becomes $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028 for people who were permanent Florida residents on Dec. 31, 2026, and $50,000 in 2027 for those who were not (Florida EDR). Read together, the school line of a homestead bill keeps only the $25,000 exemption it has today (our reading of the EDR tables).

Your stake: you vote on two things that touch the same bill. Amendment 3 cuts the non-school lines; the school line still carries only the first $25,000 homestead exemption (Florida EDR). A mill is $1 for every $1,000 of taxable value (WDBO), so a 1 mill school levy on a homestead assessed at $300,000 is about $275 a year whether Amendment 3 passes or fails (our arithmetic: $300,000 minus $25,000, times 0.001, assuming no other school exemptions). Miami-Dade’s school board puts its renewal at “less than $316 per year, or $0.86 per day, to the typical homeowner” (Miami-Dade County Public Schools). What the amendment saves you on the county, city and district lines depends on your county’s rates and on what those governments cut or raise to replace the money.

The money

The campaign money on the amendment is one-sided. Florida Realtors gave Vote Yes on 3 $2,000,000, $3,000,000 and $2,500,000 on Sept. 3; $2,500,000 on Sept. 4; $4,000,000 on Sept. 11; $4,000,000 on Sept. 14; and $1,500,000 on Sept. 30, $19,500,000 in all, and the only other receipt is $10.33 of interest from TD Bank NA (Division of Elections, checked Oct. 13). Three committees oppose it, and together they had raised $888,917.15 through Oct. 2, so the Realtors’ checks are about 22 times the no side (Division of Elections; our arithmetic). The committee-by-committee detail is in our Realtors story.

The school boards’ money is on the same ballot. Miami-Dade’s board, by Resolution 26-023 at its April 22 meeting, asks voters to renew its existing 1 mill operating levy from July 1, 2027 to June 30, 2031, and estimates it “may be able to raise $585 million annually” (Miami-Dade County Public Schools; The Ballot Brief). Broward asks voters to keep levying a 1 mill tax they “first approved in 2022” from Jan. 1, 2027 through Dec. 31, 2030; the board voted to direct about $254.3 million of it to school-based employees, including teachers, administrators and safety staff (WLRN). Palm Beach’s board calls a referendum on “continued authority to levy 1.00 mills” for 2027-28 through 2030-31; its findings say the first 0.25 mill has generated an average of $52 million in annual revenue since 2010-11 and the additional 0.75 mill an average of $208 million since 2019-20 (School Board of Palm Beach County). Orange County’s board asks voters to “continue the one (1) mill ad valorem tax for a period of four (4) years,” which the district says generates an estimated $255 million a year (Orange County School Board legal notice; WKMG). Jacksonville’s Ordinance 2026-387 puts continuing Duval’s current 1 mill levy to voters, July 1, 2027 to June 30, 2031 (City of Jacksonville). Pasco asks to “continue to levy” up to one mill over the same four years (Pasco County Schools), Brevard to “renew a one (1) mill ad valorem millage for four years to sustain increased teacher and staff pay” (Brevard Supervisor of Elections), and Nassau to “continue to levy” up to 1 mill (Nassau County Property Appraiser).

Four districts ask for money they do not levy now, or more of it. Lake County Schools says “The 2026 referendum is new”: a 1 mill tax for four years from July 1, 2027, for teacher pay, school safety and student mental health, while its separate 0.75 mill tax “ends on June 30, 2027” (Lake County Schools). Wakulla commissioners put the school board’s “additional one mill” for four years on the ballot (WTXL). Osceola commissioners placed the district’s 1 mill question on the ballot Aug. 3, an action the county calls ministerial and not an endorsement (Osceola County); WDBO reports it could raise about $62 million a year, about $300 a year on a $300,000 home (WDBO). Polk commissioners sent a 1 mill school referendum to the ballot at about $76 million to $82 million a year, 80% for school-based staff, averaging around $260 more a year for homeowners (FOX 13). Leon’s ballot asks whether to “authorize an annual ad valorem operating millage of one mil, for four years” (Tallahassee Chamber voter guide); the language does not say whether that is new or a renewal, and we do not label it.

The same 13 counties carry more than half of the cut. The state’s recurring non-school loss, by county: Miami-Dade $1.39 billion, Broward $1.19 billion, Palm Beach $1.07 billion, Orange $781.1 million, Duval $416.2 million, Polk $365.6 million, Pasco $364.9 million, Brevard $272.4 million, Osceola $257.4 million, Lake $240.8 million, Leon $100.9 million, Nassau $77.0 million and Wakulla $12.4 million, with the school column at 0.0 in each (Florida EDR). That is $6.54 billion, about 55% of the statewide $11.8 billion (our arithmetic). Side by side, and only side by side: Miami-Dade’s schools estimate $585 million a year from their mill, and the state estimates Miami-Dade County’s own government, which includes its county-dependent special districts, loses $357.3 million in fiscal 2027-28 and $643.5 million in fiscal 2028-29 (Miami-Dade County Public Schools; Florida EDR, Addendum 1). The two are separate budgets.

How it works

A homestead bill has two kinds of lines: the school line, which pays the school district, and the lines that pay the county, the city and special districts (Florida EDR). Amendment 3 raises the exemption only on the second kind, which is why the state scores the school column at zero and every other column in the red (Florida EDR).

Not all of the cut goes to homesteads. The state’s June estimate, the last to split it, put the recurring loss at $11.9 billion: $9.6 billion from the homestead exemption, $970.5 million from the 5% cap on non-homestead residential property such as rentals and second homes, and $1.29 billion from the cap on non-residential property. The two cap pieces, $2.26 billion, are 19.0% of the total, about a fifth (Florida EDR, June 12; our arithmetic). The July estimate does not republish the split.

Newcomers wait. The estimate notes that “Nobody born after December 31, 2026, including children born in Florida, will immediately qualify for the larger exemption”; in its 2028 table, a homeowner who was not a resident on Dec. 31, 2026 gets $51,220 against $250,000 for one who was (Florida EDR). The losses also land on three kinds of government: in fiscal 2027-28, $3.2 billion on county commissions, $1.29 billion on cities and $432.8 million on independent special districts (Florida EDR, Addendum 1).

What could still stop it

Savings are an estimate, not a bill. PolitiFact’s worked example, a $400,000 primary residence in Broward County, comes out about $2,672 lower in 2028, assuming the county keeps its millage rate and non-ad valorem charges do not rise; that is one county’s example, not a statewide average (PolitiFact). Florida Realtors “acknowledged the measure doesn’t require specific public safety spending levels” and that the Legislature “will need to provide additional guidance,” PolitiFact reports, and Jeff Brandes, the former Republican state senator who founded the Florida Policy Project, said: “Nothing in the amendment guarantees police or fire get funded first, or are not cut” (PolitiFact). PolitiFact describes the opposition, Vote No on 3, as “a coalition that includes sheriffs and city and county leaders” (PolitiFact).

The amendment may not pass. The Sun Sentinel’s Oct. 13 roundup of three recent polls has it at 63% yes for the James Madison Institute, 55% for NBC 6 and Telemundo and 42% support for Florida Politics, and “Passage requires 60% of the vote” (South Florida Sun Sentinel). The school levies are separate questions; Leon’s voter guide says its question needs a simple majority, not the 60% supermajority (Tallahassee Chamber voter guide).

The district list is a floor. We confirmed 13 school-tax questions against a primary record or a local outlet, and other districts may have their own; “renewal” and “new” follow each ballot or outlet’s wording, and Lake’s new mill replaces a 0.75 mill levy that ends June 30, 2027 (Lake County Schools).

Why it matters across Florida

Every Florida homesteader gets the same answer on the school line, no change, and a different answer on everything else, because the state scores the loss county by county and government by government (Florida EDR). The places where the school question sits next to the amendment, from Miami-Dade and Palm Beach to Jacksonville and Tallahassee, account for $6.54 billion of the state’s $11.8 billion recurring estimate (Florida EDR; our arithmetic).

The clock is short. In Palm Beach, St. Lucie and Indian River counties, early voting starts Oct. 19, and the request deadline for a mail ballot is “Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, by 5 p.m.” (WPTV). State law requires early voting from the 10th to the 3rd day before the election, Oct. 24 to Oct. 31 this year, and lets supervisors add days (s. 101.657; our arithmetic).

What to watch

The next Division of Elections reports from Vote Yes on 3 and the three committees against it. Whether any other school district’s question turns up on a county sample ballot. Early voting from Oct. 19 in Palm Beach, St. Lucie and Indian River and statewide Oct. 24 to 31. Nov. 3: the 60% line for the amendment, and the school levies on the same ballot. If it passes, the Legislature’s “additional guidance” on what local governments must fund (PolitiFact).