We met this week with the marketing team of a small Central Florida city about helping promote their Fourth of July celebration, Halloween party, and other annual events. When budgets came up, they had zero clue what next year might look like if Florida’s Amendment 3 passes.
That uncertainty is already having consequences. Altamonte Springs has ended city funding for Red Hot & Boom, Ocoee canceled its Music Fest, and Lady Lake canceled its Christmas parade and Longwood has announced cuts as well. Yes, these decisions involve rising costs and other budget pressures, but uncertainty surrounding Amendment 3 has been explicitly mentioned as a deciding factor, even before anyone has cast a vote.
Of course, a city’s Fourth of July celebration isn’t critical infrastructure, but traditions like that certainly help give each town its unique identity, culture and sense of community.
Police, fire, emergency medical services, roads and stormwater systems, on the other hand, are critical. And all depend, to varying degrees, on local funding.
Amendment 3 would give qualifying homeowners substantial property tax relief, increasing the homestead exemption to $250,000 by 2028 for taxes other than school taxes. It would also limit assessment increases on rental and commercial properties. That’s real relief. But cutting taxes doesn’t reduce the cost of the services they fund.
Cities and counties may have to cut services, raise other taxes or fees, or rely more heavily on state funding. Renters receive no homestead exemption, and if property taxes on rentals rise to replace lost revenue, some of those costs could be passed along in higher rents.
One Florida housing study estimates an additional $406 in annual property taxes per average apartment if local governments replace all lost revenue through higher property tax rates. That’s not necessarily an automatic $406 rent increase, but historically we know that’s just how these things go… the highest costs almost always get passed down to the ones who can least afford it.
(Study: https://flhousing.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Walczak-Amendment-3-Impact-on-Renters.pdf)
I’m all for scrutinizing government spending and finding ways to operate more efficiently. But Amendment 3 isn’t just about property taxes. It’s about how our communities are funded, what services and traditions we can afford to preserve, and who ultimately picks up the tab.
