A website unveiled Friday lets homeowners with homestead exemptions find out exactly how much money they would save a year if a Ron DeSantis proposal to raise the limits meets muster with legislators next week and voters in November.
The Save Our Homes site, which is “created by the state of Florida,” is promoting a plan that legislators have yet to even consider. The Special Session, in which 60% votes of support are required in both the House and the Senate, starts Monday.
Users can enter addresses with homestead exemptions and see what the proposed raises of the limits to $250,000, which would be effective in 2028 if ultimately ratified, would do to their bills.
DeSantis had initially suggested that relief would be instantaneous, but as revealed in recent months, a more “phased-in” approach will be introduced to the Legislature to allow local governments to prepare for the revenue decline with a “smooth transition.”
Property taxes would be required to be used for “core services” like schools and first responders, he said, under his proposal, which does not cap increases in “fees” that local governments could raise to offset the lost property tax revenue.
The initial break for taxpayers would be a raising of the homestead limit to $150,000 under this plan beginning Jan. 1, 2027. Then by the beginning of 2028, the limit would be raised to $250,000.
From there, the Legislature would be “commanded” to create a schedule to eliminate homestead property taxes entirely, moving toward potentially full elimination of the duty for residents of the state before November 2026.
People who move to Florida after the amendment passes would have to pay homestead taxes for five years, DeSantis said this week, a backstop that is intended to “mitigate” undue benefits for newcomers.
