Treasure Coast — Florida voters approved Amendment 3, and local governments on the Treasure Coast are already working out what it will cost them.
The measure won about 62 percent of the vote statewide, two points more than the 60 percent it needed. It raises the homestead exemption for non-school property taxes from $50,000 to $150,000 in 2027, then to $250,000 in 2028. School districts were carved out of the larger exemption.
Officials in St. Lucie and Martin counties say the change will mean lower tax bills for homeowners and much less money for county governments.
St. Lucie County Communications Director Erick Gill said homeowners should see the difference in their next assessment.
“Starting January 1 next year, when their new assessment comes out, they will see a reduction in their assessed value,” Gill said.
He gave an example. A homeowner with a $300,000 home in 2028 would be taxed on just $50,000 of its value for non-school ad valorem taxes. School districts will still collect their full rate, while all other taxing districts will see revenue fall.
For the county, Gill said, the effect is large.
“For us on the county side, it means a significant decrease in revenue,” he said. “The first year, we’re looking at probably $63 million less in revenue. And then in 2028, it would be roughly about $112 million less.”
Gill said staff will work with the Board of County Commissioners and the constitutional offices before the new fiscal year starts Oct. 1, 2027. Their task is to cut the budget while still meeting essential services. He said it is too early to say what will be cut. That will be decided before the final budget hearing in September 2027.
“All local governments are going to have to sit down and figure out where those reductions of service” will fall, Gill said.
He added that the burden cannot rest on the commission alone. The county also funds the sheriff, tax collector, property appraiser, supervisor of elections and clerk of court.
“It’s going to take a collective effort from the Board of County Commissioners and all the other constitutional offices that we fund,” Gill said, “because it all can’t fall on just the Board of County Commissioners.”
In Martin County, Commissioner Blake Capps said the shortfall will be steep. Property taxes brought in $363 million in the last budget cycle. Capps put the 2027 gap at about $42 million, or roughly 12 percent. He put the 2028 gap at about $75 million, or about 20 percent.
Capps said that if homestead property taxes are eventually eliminated entirely, the shortfall could reach about $176 million, roughly half of property tax revenue.
“These are rather severe cuts that will require the re-engineering of how we as a county deliver services,” Capps said. “It’s not just trimming. It’s very, very significant.”
He said the county has three basic ways to respond. The first is what he called “pure cuts,” meaning the full $42 million next year, then $75 million, and so on.
The second is a tax shift. About half of Martin County’s properties are homesteaded. Making up the difference by raising taxes on non-homesteaded property is possible, Capps said, though he doubts the commission would do it.
A preliminary analysis found it would take about a 19 percent increase for those property owners to cover next year’s gap.
“That’s a rather severe increase,” he said.
The third is new fees and assessments, such as separate charges on the tax bill for fire rescue, law enforcement, the jail or stormwater. Capps said these are fees rather than property taxes, and many local governments already use them. Martin County does not have many on its bill, and it pays for most of those services from the general fund.
The county could also mix approaches, he said. For example, it could split a $42 million gap into roughly $14 million each of cuts, tax shift and new fees.
Both officials said the Legislature will play a role. Gill said Governor Ron DeSantis has announced he wants a special legislative session to set ground rules for local governments. The governor is concerned that they will create new impact fees “and things of that nature” to make up lost revenue.
“We’ll have to see what the Legislature does as well,” Gill said.
Capps said the Martin County commission will likely start deliberating around the middle of next year. He said public input will shape the outcome.
“We’ll be listening very intently to what our residents feel like we should do,” he said.