I'm a Sarasota native, a local real estate agent, and a homeowner with a homestead exemption. If Amendment 3 passes on November 3, my property tax bill goes down. I'm still not sold.
Most of what you'll hear about Amendment 3 is the savings. Very little of it is about what those savings pay for, or what we give up to get them. Sarasota County has run the numbers on what it means for the services we use every day. This post walks through them, in plain terms, so you can decide with the whole picture.
What Amendment 3 actually does
Amendment 3 is a proposed change to the Florida Constitution. It needs 60% of voters to pass, and it would take effect January 1, 2027. If approved:
- The homestead exemption on non-school property taxes rises from about $50,000 today to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028, then adjusts for inflation.
- School taxes don't change. The school exemption stays at $25,000.
- Counties and cities can only spend property tax dollars on a defined list of uses: public safety, schools, infrastructure, natural resources, bond debt, employee retirement, and operations.
- For non-homestead property (rentals, second homes, businesses), the yearly cap on assessment increases drops from 10% to 5%.
- Counties and cities get a path to raise the exemption further, all the way to full value, but there's no required timeline to do it.
The savings, honestly
A $250,000 exemption sounds like it wipes out most of your bill. It doesn't, because school taxes make up more than half of a typical Sarasota tax bill, and they don't change.
Sarasota County's own example: a homestead with $300,000 in taxable value would see its bill drop from about $4,344 to $3,268 a year. That's a savings of roughly $1,076 a year, or about $89 a month.
That's real money, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. But it's worth knowing the actual number before weighing it against what comes next.
Where that $89 comes from
Every dollar we save comes out of a county budget. Sarasota County estimates Amendment 3 would cut about $87 million a year from county services by fiscal year 2029. That's roughly 20% of the property tax revenue in those funds.
County fund | Estimated yearly loss (FY29) |
|---|---|
General Fund (Sheriff, parks, libraries, transit and more) | $68.1 million |
Emergency Medical Services | $11.4 million |
Environmentally Sensitive Lands (operating) | $4.1 million |
Environmentally Sensitive Lands (bond debt) | $1.5 million |
Mosquito Control | $1.1 million |
Legacy Trail (bond debt) | $0.8 million |
Total | $87.1 million |
To put the General Fund hit in perspective: the county's three largest commissioner-controlled services are transit ($26.9 million), parks and recreation ($25.6 million), and libraries ($18.8 million). Close all three entirely and you'd barely cover the $68 million cut.
What we'd actually feel
The Sheriff's Office, including the jail and animal services, makes up more than half of the county's General Fund. If cuts were spread evenly, the Sheriff would absorb about $35 million of the $68 million.
Emergency Medical Services gets 73% of its funding from property taxes. Its only other real source of money is ambulance fees. The county says the choice there comes down to significant service cuts, a higher EMS tax rate, or both.
And it goes well beyond public safety. Property taxes help fund a long list of things most of us use without thinking about it:
- Lifeguards and beaches
- Parks, ballfields, and pickleball courts
- Libraries and summer camps
- The Legacy Trail and the Siesta Key trolley
- Mosquito control
- Emergency management and veteran services
- Code enforcement and roadside maintenance
- Buying and protecting environmentally sensitive land
The county hasn't decided what it would cut, and it won't until voters decide. But a hole this size doesn't get filled by trimming around the edges.
The catch: some of it comes back to us anyway
The bonds we already approved still have to be paid. Sarasota voters approved bonds for the Legacy Trail extension and environmental land protection. That debt can't be reduced. With less taxable value to spread it across, those tax rates go up. The county estimates about $2.15 a year per $100,000 of taxable value.
New and higher fees are likely. When property tax revenue drops, local governments look elsewhere. The county lists the likely options: higher sales tax, a public service tax, bigger special assessments, and higher user fees for things like parks and bus passes. Those hit everyone, homesteaded or not.
The burden shifts to our neighbors. Renters, small businesses, and owners of second homes and rentals don't get the bigger exemption. The county warns their tax rates could rise to help cover the gap. Businesses that pay more tend to pass it on, through rent and prices.
Some costs can't be cut at all. Counties are required to fund certain things no matter what, including voter-approved debt, Medicaid and juvenile justice costs, and state retirement contributions. That means the cuts land harder on everything else.
Borrowing could cost more. The county flags a possible bond rating downgrade, which would mean higher interest costs on future projects. Taxpayers pay that too.
What supporters say
To be fair, there's a real case on the other side. Supporters, including Governor DeSantis, argue that local property tax collections have grown fast and that homeowners need relief. They say local governments can tighten their budgets instead of passing every increase on to residents. Florida Realtors also supports the amendment.
Owners of rentals, second homes, and businesses also get something: their yearly assessment cap drops from 10% to 5%, which slows how fast their taxable values can rise.
Those are fair points. My concern is that the savings are easy to see, and the costs are easy to miss.
The bottom line
For a typical Sarasota homestead, Amendment 3 means about $89 a month in savings. In exchange, the county is looking at an $87 million gap that touches public safety, EMS, parks, libraries, beaches, and more, plus likely new fees and higher costs for our renters and local businesses.
Is that trade worth it? That's your call, and I'm not here to tell you how to vote. I just want my neighbors making that decision with the whole picture, not just the headline.
Have questions about how this could affect your home? Reach out anytime. And whatever you decide, vote on November 3.
The figures in this post are Sarasota County estimates, not final budget decisions. Actual impacts will depend on how the County Commission responds if the amendment passes.
Sources
- Sarasota County: Amendment 3 (Amendment 3 talking points, workshop slides, and list of services funded by property tax)
- Revised Amendment 3 ballot title and summary (Jones Walker, Aug. 18, 2026)
- Florida releases court-ordered rewrite of Amendment 3 ballot language (WPLG Local 10, Aug. 13, 2026)
- Florida Realtors: Amendment 3 webinar (Sept. 2026)
