Elaine Parker is fed up with \u201cskyrocketing\u201d property tax bills propelled by soaring home values.<\/p>\n
The east Orange County resident is also mad that local governments, even as they take in more tax revenue, have not made significant cuts to spending or lowered tax rates. So she\u2019s made it her \u201cpassion\u201d to advocate for Amendment 3, a proposal on the November ballot to reduce tax bills on homeowner\u2019s primary residence.<\/p>\n
Sonya Stevenson, who lives on the west side of Orlando, doesn\u2019t buy it.<\/p>\n
She thinks that Amendment 3 could save homeowners money on their property tax bills but expects that local governments will jack up fees \u2014 charging more for fire service, for example \u2014 to make up for lost tax revenue. That could hit seniors on fixed incomes particularly hard, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re not going to save money, because somebody has to pay for it,\u201d said Stevenson, who plans to vote against the measure.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s basically a tax shift. You save on one end, but you pay on the other.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Meghan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TOS-L-amendment_3_0081f-2.jpg\")
Meghan McCollum, who is planning to vote against Florida Amendment 3, at Round Lake Park in Oviedo, Friday, September 25, 2026. Amendment 3 is a 2026 general election ballot measure to increase tax exemptions for primary residences. (Joe Burbank\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n
Amendment 3 \u2014 which would create a $250,000 homestead exemption on primary homes by 2028 \u2014 could become one of the most consequential referendums to appear on Florida\u2019s ballot in recent years, if approved by the required more than 60% of Florida voters on Nov. 3. As local residents interviewed by the Orlando Sentinel show, it is already one of the most divisive.<\/p>\n
Increasing the homestead exemption from $50,000 to $250,000 for all non-school taxes could save homeowners thousands on their annual property tax bills. But it could devastate local city and county governments, slashing billions from the pots of money they now use to fix potholes, maintain parks, operate libraries, run police and fire departments and put on local festivals and Fourth of July celebrations.<\/p>\n
The measure is backed by Republican leaders in the Florida Legislature and the Florida Realtor\u2019s Association, which has contributed $10 million to lobbying for its passage, arguing that Amendment 3 will provide \u201cmeaningful property tax relief\u201d and lift Florida\u2019s housing market out of its slump.<\/p>\n
But the proposal is opposed by most Central Florida\u2019s elected officials and Florida sheriffs and firefighters. Even conservative law enforcement officers have called the tax rollback a \u201ctrain wreck\u201d and \u201cdraconian.\u201d Republican Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma\u00a0said his agency would need to cut 300 positions if it passes.<\/p>\n
And it has split county homeowners, some of whom hope for tax relief and others who fear a loss of services or a tax shift that will hurt renters, whose property owners will not benefit as the savings only applies to owner-occupied residences.<\/p>\n
Linda Trocine, a Geneva resident who supports Amendment 3, says it\u2019s time to let homeowners keep more of their money, and for government leaders to start cutting out the \u201cfluff\u201d projects from their budgets.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s been their incentive to cut spending until now?\u201d she said of local government officials.<\/p>\n
Local officials have long contended that their ballooning budgets are the result of rising costs on everything from public safety salaries to fire trucks to construction materials. And they note all the core services they provide are primarily funded by property taxes.<\/p>\n
State economists have projected that if approved, Amendment 3 would reduce local government property tax revenues by up to $12 billion annually by 2031.<\/p>\n
Meghan McCollum uses Oviedo\u2019s parks nearly every day and frequently has books delivered to her home from the public library \u2014 amenities she fears could be hampered if local budgets are slashed. Pickleball court hours could be reduced and park maintenance curtailed, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cProperty taxes are one of the few areas where we have a consistent revenue stream in this state,\u201d McCollum said. \u201cIt takes money to run a government.\u201d<\/p>\n
She fears her fellow Oviedo residents could face a fire fee as well as higher costs on all sorts of other things, if property tax revenues diminish. Baseball and softball leagues, for example, might have to pay more to use city fields and \u201cthen pass those costs to you as part of your child\u2019s Little League fees,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Even with current property taxes, cities have resorted to fees to fund some core services as costs rise.<\/p>\n
But Ken Greenberg, a Winter Springs resident and former city commissioner, said he regularly takes a proverbial magnifying glass to the city\u2019s budget, looking for unnecessary expenses.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know for a fact that there is a great deal of waste,\u201d he said in favor of Amendment 3.\u00a0 \u201cCities have gotten very, very fat. They will spend whatever you give them.\u201d<\/p>\n
He downplayed the argument that Winter Springs is in an especially precarious situation if Amendment 3 passes, because it is about 90% residential.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not going to be closing the parks or eliminating the police department,\u201d Greenberg said. \u201cWhen you pull out the fluff from the budget, it\u2019s a couple of million that we can easily cut back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Amendment 3 would give homeowners a tax break on their primary homes, Kevin Eaton fears it could put a strain on renters like him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they\u2019re not getting money that way, then they have to get it from somewhere else,\u201d said Eaton, who works at Walt Disney World\u2019s Animal Kingdom and rents a room in Kissimmee. \u201cI\u2019d have even less money to buy groceries to live. And I already live paycheck to paycheck.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rhonda Spencer \u2014 who rents an apartment in Orange County and works in food service at Lockheed Martin \u2014 agreed Amendment 3 would be bad news for residents like her.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would have the rent go up,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s because cities and counties could raise property taxes on commercial and rental properties to help offset the loss in revenues from homesteaded homes, and building owners would likely pass that hike on to tenants. Renters account for roughly one in three Florida households.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt hurts so badly when you go into a grocery store, and you know what your kids like, but you can\u2019t afford it,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd you have to tell your kids no.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Parker, the east Orange homeowner, is convinced Amendment 3 will help new homebuyers afford their first home. She points out that her daughter and son-in-law recently bought a house in Orlando and were shocked at how high their property taxes jumped compared to the previous owner\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m watching young people, like my kids, struggle to afford a home,\u201d she said. \u201c Young people are currently being priced out of the market.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elaine Parker is fed up with \u201cskyrocketing\u201d property tax bills propelled by soaring home values. The east Orange…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[28,2174,114,115,1335,139,141,140,99,1014,109],"class_list":["post-418433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-florida","tag-lake-county","tag-latest-headlines","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-politics","tag-seminole-county","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418433","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=418433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}