The Question on Your November Ballot

What the DeSantis property tax amendment could do to your Winter Park bill

By Audra Wilks

I get the same jolt you do when that envelope from the Tax Collector lands. The difference is I read the fine print so you don’t have to, and this fall, you and I actually get a vote on what it says. On June 2, after a special session in Tallahassee, Florida lawmakers approved a constitutional amendment backed by Governor Ron DeSantis and placed it on the November ballot. Here is what it would really mean for the home you live in, in plain kitchen-counter terms.

What’s on the Ballot

Florida’s standard homestead exemption currently shields up to $50,000 of your primary residence from most property taxes. The amendment would raise that to $150,000 in 2027 and to $250,000 in 2028. The catch worth knowing is that the increase will not touch the school portion of your bill. Schools were deliberately protected. In our corner of Winter Park, the 32789 zip, the combined rate runs around 15.3 mills, and roughly 6.5 of that funds Orange County Public Schools, better than 40 percent of what you pay. That part does not move. Relief comes only from the non-school side, about 8.8 mills.

Three Homes, Three Outcomes

Because the exemption is a flat dollar amount rather than a percentage, it delivers the same savings to every homestead but lands very differently depending on price. Fully phased in, the relief works out to about $880 a year in 2027 and roughly $1,760 in 2028. Watch how that single figure behaves across three real Winter Park homes.

Start with 1701 Goodrich Avenue, listed at $709,000. A buyer who homesteads it faces a tax bill near $10,000 a year, so that $1,760 is close to 18 percent of the bill. Real, meaningful relief.

Move up to my current listing at 1420 Magnolia Avenue, offered at $1,750,000. Because Florida resets a home’s assessed value toward its sale price when it changes hands, a buyer there would be looking at roughly $26,000 a year. The same $1,760 now covers under 7 percent of the bill.

Now take it to the top with a recent sale at 1155 Woodmere Drive, which traded at $5,200,000. At nearly $79,000 a year in taxes, that identical $1,760 shrinks to about 2 percent. Same dollars, a fifth of the impact.

The takeaway: this amendment is built to do far more for the median homeowner than for the top of our market. The bigger the home, the smaller the slice.

What It Means Month to Month

For most of us, property taxes are not an annual shock. They ride inside the monthly mortgage payment through escrow, so a cut to your tax bill is really a cut to your monthly cost, and that ripples into buying power. I asked my lending partner, Chris Hardiman of Fusion Home Loans, to put numbers to it:

“Property taxes are baked into your payment through escrow. Trimming $1,760 a year is about $145 a month back in your pocket, and on a qualification worksheet, that can move what you’re approved to borrow more than people expect.”

Chris Hardiman, Executive Vice President & Mortgage Loan Originator, Fusion Home Loans (NMLS# 1708961)

A Few Things to Keep in Mind

It only helps homesteads. Second homes, lake getaways, and investment rentals, a real slice of what trades here, get nothing from the expanded exemption. Newcomers matter too: anyone who establishes Florida residency after January 2027 must hold it for up to five years before qualifying for the increased benefit, though they still receive the existing $50,000 break right away. And if you have owned for years, the Save Our Homes cap of 3 percent a year is likely protecting you more than any exemption ever could, exactly as it did on Magnolia, where it held the taxable value well below market.

Who Pays for It

It is fair to ask who funds the relief. A House staff analysis estimated the amendment would reduce revenue to non-school local governments by about $4.6 billion at the outset, growing toward $8.4 billion a year. Supporters argue local spending has outrun what homeowners can keep up with, and that voters deserve the choice. Opponents, including some local officials and firefighters, warn it could pinch the services that make a place worth living in: public safety, infrastructure, parks, and stormwater. The amendment limits the affected dollars to core services and tightens the assessment cap on non-homestead properties, but how the city absorbs the difference is the open question.

Before You Vote

Nothing is law yet. The amendment needs at least 60 percent approval in November and phases in across 2027 and 2028. Between now and then, read your TRIM notice when it lands in August, estimate your own number rather than leaning on a statewide average, and weigh the relief against the services it touches. Your home is worth the few minutes of math, and my door is open if you would like help running yours.

Audra Wilks is a Realtor with Premier Sotheby’s International Realty in Winter Park. This column is for general information only and is not tax or legal advice.