HJR 203 Died. Amendment 3 Is on the Ballot. What It Means for Palm Beach County.

What happened to HJR 203

HJR 203 would have raised the homestead exemption by $100,000 a year for 10 years starting in 2027, until homesteads were exempt from all property taxes except school taxes by 2037.

• February 19, 2026: the Florida House passed it 80-30.
• March 13, 2026: the regular session ended and the bill died in the Senate Appropriations Committee without a hearing or a floor vote.
• April 2026: a special session ended without taking up property taxes.
• May 2026: Governor DeSantis called a special session on property taxes for the week of June 1.

What Amendment 3 would do

The special session passed CS/HJR 1F, which the state placed on the ballot on June 16, 2026 as Amendment 3. Its ballot title is "Increased Homestead Exemption; Lower Cap on Increases in Non-Homestead Property Assessments." If approved, it would:

• Raise the homestead exemption for all non-school taxes to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028, then adjust it for inflation.
• Keep a $25,000 exemption against school taxes.
• Lower the yearly cap on assessment increases for non-homestead property, such as rentals, second homes and commercial property, from 10% to 5%.
• Require the Legislature to set a uniform way for counties and cities to raise the exemption up to full assessed value for their own levies.
• Limit what counties and cities can spend property taxes on to public safety, education and schools, infrastructure, natural resources, bond debt service, employee retirement benefits, and operations and administration.
• Give people who are not Florida residents on December 31, 2026 the existing homestead exemption at first, with the larger exemption starting in their fifth year of exemption.

It would take effect January 1, 2027. The first tax bills to show it would be the November 2027 bills.

What the exemption is today

For the 2026 tax year, a qualifying homestead gets up to $51,411 off its assessed value. That is $25,000 against all taxes, including school taxes, plus an extra $26,411 against non-school taxes, adjusted each year for inflation. The Save Our Homes cap also limits the yearly increase in a homestead's assessed value. None of that changes unless Amendment 3 passes.

What it could mean in Palm Beach County

If it passes, a homestead owner's non-school taxable value would drop, so the county, city and other non-school parts of the bill would shrink. School taxes would stay. Local governments would have less property tax money to work with, and the Legislature would return in 2027 to write the rules that carry it out, so the final details are not known yet.

If you own a rental or a second home, the change that matters is the lower cap on yearly assessment increases. If you are moving to Florida, the residency rule matters: if you are not a Florida resident on December 31, 2026, the larger exemption would not start right away.

Related reading

See our explainer on the earlier Florida property tax elimination proposal (palmbeachcountyhomeforsale.com/florida-property-tax-elimination-proposal-explained), or the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser's homestead exemption page for filing.

Sources: Florida Department of State, constitutionalinitiatives.dos.fl.gov (Amendment 3, CS/HJR 1F, ballot summary, made ballot June 16, 2026, effective January 1, 2027); Florida Department of State 2026 constitutional amendment booklet (ballot title); Pinellas County Property Appraiser, pcpao.gov/amendment3 (60% approval, November 3, 2026 election, 2026 exemption of $25,000 plus $26,411, school exemption, CPI adjustments, first bills November 2027); Executive Office of the Governor, flgov.com press release, May 2026 (special session the week of June 1); Florida Senate and Florida House bill pages for HJR 203 (House vote 80-30 on February 19, 2026; died in Senate Appropriations March 13, 2026). Read October 26, 2026. General information, not tax or legal advice.