Florida voters approved Amendment 3 on Nov. 3 with 62% of the vote, clearing the 60% bar, according to the News Service of Florida. The non-school homestead exemption rises from $50,000 to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028. The annual cap on assessment increases for non-homestead property, including certain rental and commercial properties, drops from 10% to 5%.
State economists estimated the cut to local property tax collections at about $11.8 billion in the 2031 to 2032 fiscal year, WTXL reported.
Gov. Ron DeSantis celebrated on X: "Big win on Amendment 3 for Florida homeowners!" Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods had warned before the vote that it was "a hidden way of defunding the police," WUSF reported.
Both can be true. That is the question this piece follows: when the bill gets capped, who pays the difference, and who decides?
The ledger, state by state
| State | Measure | What it does | Result | Who covers the gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | Amendment 3 | Homestead exemption to $250,000 by 2028; 5% cap on non-homestead assessment growth | Passed, 62% | Local budgets; school taxes exempt |
| North Carolina | Levy-limit amendment | Requires the legislature to cap year-over-year local property tax increases; the size comes later | Passed, 60.4% | No backfill; counties may turn to sales taxes |
| North Carolina | Income tax cap | Caps the state income tax at 3.5%, down from 7% | Passed, about 61% to 62% | No near-term cost; limits future state room |
| Texas | Props 13, 11 and 9 (2025) | School homestead exemption from $100,000 to $140,000, plus a larger exemption for seniors and people with disabilities | Passed, each at 60% or more | The state reimburses school districts; cities and counties absorb or raise rates |
| Indiana | SEA 1 (2025, legislature) | Homestead credit; phases out business equipment tax; new local income tax options | Signed April 2025 | Local income taxes, by local choice |
| Georgia | HB 581 (2024) | Limits homestead assessment increases; 316 local entities opted out, including 123 school districts | Passed | Local option sales taxes |
| Wyoming and Oklahoma | Initiative 1; SQ 847 | Residence exemption; tighter valuation limit | Both rejected, per ITEP | Not applicable |
Results come from the News Service of Florida, AP via Fox Carolina, Fortune and WFAE, the Texas Standard, IPB News, the Tax Foundation and ITEP.
North Carolina's blank check, in reverse
North Carolina's levy-limit amendment is the strangest item on the list. Voters wrote a cap into the state constitution, and the General Assembly now has to decide how big it is. A Senate select committee was named in September to study it, WUNC reported.
Property tax pays for more than a quarter of North Carolina school operating costs, WUNC reported, citing the Department of Public Instruction. The NC Housing Coalition, an advocacy group, estimated in figures reported by Fortune that a 2% cap would cut local revenue by $950 million and save the average homeowner $84 a year. That is a scenario, not a law. The real number depends on what lawmakers write.
Gov. Josh Stein called the income tax amendment "a con, a cynical shell game and a millionaire protection cap," Fortune reported. Rep. Brian Echevarria, a Republican, called rising reassessments a "tax on unrealized gains." Sen. Ralph Hise said at a May committee meeting, "I fundamentally disagree with the state concept of an income tax," WFAE reported, citing NC Newsline.
The income tax cap costs nothing now, according to the legislature's own fiscal note. The 2026 budget law already schedules the rate to fall to 3.49% for 2027 through 2029, 3.24% for 2030 through 2032 and 2.99% for 2033 and 2034. What the cap changes is the future. If counties lose property tax room, a state with a constitutional ceiling on income taxes has less room to send them money.
Texas: relief at scale
Texas spent about $51 billion on two years of property tax relief in its 2025 session, the Texas Tribune reported. The state reimburses school districts for the bigger homestead exemption. Cities and counties do not get the same deal.
Shannon Halbrook of Every Texan warned at the time: "I don't think we're going to have a lot of extra money lying around next time." The Tribune also noted that Texas's 9.8 million renters got no direct relief.
The renter question
This is where the trade lands on people who never voted on a homestead exemption, because they do not own one.
Adam Langley of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy wrote that assessment limits "shift the tax burden away from wealthier neighborhoods toward poorer neighborhoods." The same analysis found that homestead exemptions shift burden toward businesses, renters and second-home owners. In Florida, an analysis published by WLRN said landlords and other non-homestead owners "would almost certainly" see higher taxes as local governments adjust, while renters get no direct relief.
Florida's amendment also cuts the cap on assessment growth for non-homestead property, including rentals, from 10% to 5%, which slows how fast a landlord's taxes can rise. Whether tenants come out ahead or behind depends on what counties do with their millage rates next year. That is the number to watch.
The case for the cap
Supporters are owed their argument at full strength. Homeowners on fixed incomes watched assessments rise with the market while their paychecks did not. A cap gives them predictability that a local budget vote never did. Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia said of the state's estimates, "The numbers work." Donald Bryson of the John Locke Foundation argued that neither North Carolina amendment automatically cuts school funding, WUNC reported.
Opponents answer that the cuts are real even when they are delayed. Indiana Rep. Greg Porter called his state's 2025 law "lose-lose," IPB News reported. Florida Democratic Party chair Nikki Fried said the push was "making our local governments the big boogeyman."
What we owe each other
A property tax is the most local promise government makes: the deputy who answers, the school down the street, the park the kids walk to. Cutting it can be fair. Hiding who pays is not.
Scanlon's test asks whether a choice could be justified to the person with the least power in it. Here that is often the renter, who gets no exemption and may inherit the shift, and the small county with no tourist tax to lean on.
Watch three things: the number North Carolina's select committee proposes, the first Florida county budgets written under Amendment 3, and whether Ohio's campaign to abolish property taxes makes the 2027 ballot. Opponents say it would erase more than $21 billion in local revenue, Signal Ohio reported.