What's actually true about Amendment 3
The tax changes are real. So are local revenue estimates. Several claims now attached to them go further than the official records support.
The larger exemption is in the text. A new market-value reset is not. School taxes remain, CS/SB 4-F remains law either way, and no adopted budget says Amendment 3 automatically slows 911 response.
Amendment 3 would make major changes to Florida property taxes. That does not make every warning or rumor attached to it true.
Here is what the official text, local records and existing law actually support.
The amendment itself
Claim: The non-school homestead exemption becomes $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028.
Verdict: True. The enrolled resolution prints that schedule.
Claim: Amendment 3 resets every homestead to market value.
Verdict: False. Save Our Homes remains. The just-value language being circulated as a new reset is existing constitutional language reenacted with the section.
Claim: School property taxes go to zero.
Verdict: False. The larger homestead exemption excludes school levies. The existing $25,000 school exemption remains.
Claim: A No vote restores the old millage law.
Verdict: False. CS/SB 4-F already became Chapter 2026-240. It remains law whether Amendment 3 passes or fails.
The local-government numbers
Claim: Orange County published $165 million for 2027 and $275 million for 2028.
Verdict: True. Those are official county estimates. The county has not published the workbook or millage assumption needed to reproduce them.
Claim: Orange County has already adopted $46 million in fire cuts and $30 million in sheriff cuts for 2027.
Verdict: False. Those are projected differences in separate levy groups. They are not adopted department appropriations.
Claim: Orlando would lose $80 million in 2028 if Amendment 3 passes.
Verdict: False as stated. Dyer cited about $30 million for 2028 and $50 million for 2029. His $80 million figure described full elimination of the homestead exemption, a different scenario.
Claim: Amendment 3 automatically makes 911 response slower.
Verdict: Unsupported. Officials have warned that service levels could change. No adopted budget or response-time model establishes slower 911 response as an automatic result of the amendment.
The important distinction is not whether the tax change or the revenue pressure is real. Both are. The question is whether a specific claimed consequence is in the amendment, in a published model or in a budget that elected officials have actually adopted.
Sources
Notes
- None.
Read next
- Dyer warned of slower 911 response. His $80 million figure describes a different tax scenario. Orlando and Orange County have forecast lower property-tax revenue, but neither has adopted a budget that turns those estimates into police, fire or parks cuts.
- How a tax forecast became a warning about 911 Dyer's $30 million and $50 million estimates, an $80 million full-elimination scenario and Orange County's levy projections are different figures. Public messaging has often placed them beside the same service warnings.