The Brief<\/p>\n
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier rewrote Amendment 3’s ballot summary and title after a judge ruled the original wording was misleading.<\/p>\n
The measure would expand homestead tax exemptions and lower the assessment cap for non-homestead properties.<\/p>\n
Law enforcement officials and other opponents warn the proposal could reduce local revenue and shift costs to other taxpayers.<\/p>\n
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier on Thursday released revised ballot summary and title for Amendment 3, a property tax proposal backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.<\/p>\n
The rewrite comes after a judge ruled the original wording was misleading and politically charged.<\/p>\n
Court orders rewrite<\/p>\n
The backstory<\/p>\n
Leon County Judge David Frank last week ordered the amendment’s title and ballot summary rewritten after three groups challenged the language.<\/p>\n
The original title, “Save Our Homes From Excessive Property Taxes,” has been replaced with “Increased Homestead Exemption, Lower Cap on Increases in Non-Homestead Property Assessments.”<\/p>\n
Uthmeier said his office could rewrite only the title and summary, not the proposed constitutional amendment itself.<\/p>\n
What Amendment 3 would do<\/p>\n
The measure would increase Florida’s $50,000 homestead property tax exemption to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028. Taxes supporting K-12 public schools would not be affected by the increased exemption.<\/p>\n
It would also reduce the cap on annual assessment increases for non-homestead properties from 10% to 5%.<\/p>\n
DeSantis has pushed for major property tax reductions for more than a year, pointing to an increase in local property tax revenue from $31 billion in 2019 to $55 billion in 2024.<\/p>\n
Law enforcement raises concerns<\/p>\n
The other side<\/p>\n
Uthmeier also said law enforcement agencies should have had a greater role in developing the proposal, which critics say could significantly reduce local government revenue used for public safety.<\/p>\n
“No one wants to defund our incredible sheriffs, yet there were no discussions to involve them in this process,” Uthmeier said.<\/p>\n
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd has been among the law enforcement officials criticizing the proposal, calling it a “train wreck.”<\/p>\n
Opponents welcome new language<\/p>\n
Groups opposing Amendment 3 praised the court-ordered rewrite but continued to criticize the underlying proposal.<\/p>\n
Edie Ousley, a spokesperson for Vote No on 3, said the measure would shift costs rather than eliminate them, potentially leaving renters, businesses and other property owners to shoulder more of the burden.<\/p>\n
Amendment 3 requires support from at least 60% of voters to pass in November.<\/p>\n
The Source<\/p>\n
This story was written based on reporting by the News Service of Florida.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier rewrote Amendment 3’s ballot summary and title after a judge ruled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[127553,28,7912,30,29,150339,4260,1598,150340,8191,412],"class_list":["post-372130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-ballot-summary","tag-florida","tag-florida-attorney-general","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-homestead-tax-exemptions","tag-james-uthmeier","tag-law-enforcement","tag-leon-county-judge-david-frank","tag-property-tax","tag-ron-desantis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}