Picture two houses on the same Leon County street in 2028. They have the same floor plan and the same assessed value, and both owners hold a Florida homestead exemption. If Amendment 3 passes on Tuesday, November 3, one owner could take $250,000 off the value used for county taxes and the other could take off about $50,000. The only difference between them would be whether each one was a Florida resident on December 31, 2026.
For Georgia families planning a move to Tallahassee, and for anyone timing a purchase around the new year, that date now matters as much as the price. The ballot is five days away. The residency line falls about two months after that.
The Sentence That Puts a Date on Your Purchase
Most coverage of Amendment 3 focuses on the headline exemption. The official ballot summary from the Florida Division of Elections raises the homestead exemption for non-school taxes to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028, with inflation adjustments after that. For buyers, the key provision is the residency cutoff, which the summary puts this way:
"Persons who are not Florida residents on December 31, 2026, will receive the existing homestead exemption upon qualifying for a homestead exemption, with the increased homestead exemption beginning with the fifth year of exemption, to the extent permitted by the U.S. Constitution."
Leon County's property tax amendment FAQ spells out how the clock works. A newcomer gets the existing $50,000 non-school exemption at first. The five-year period runs from the year the exemption is first claimed, not from the date the person establishes residency. Current Florida homestead owners don't wait at all.
That has a practical result for a buyer coming from Bainbridge, Thomasville, or anywhere outside Florida. Owning the house doesn't start the clock. Claiming the exemption does. So if you're a newcomer, the year you file your first Florida homestead claim decides when the larger exemption reaches your bill.
Putting Dollars on the Wait
Florida TaxWatch's property tax resource center offers a simple formula. Add up your non-school millage rates, then multiply by $98.59 for 2027 and $198.59 for 2028. Those figures are the extra value Amendment 3 would exempt per mill, measured against today's $51,411 non-school exemption. TaxWatch says the estimate assumes millage rates stay the same and the home is assessed above the exemption level. It also says the formula leaves out some independent special districts and isn't tax advice.
Leon County's August 2026 notices of proposed property taxes list these non-school rates for an unincorporated homestead: 8.3144 mills for the county, 0.7500 for emergency medical services, 0.3353 for the Children's Services Council, and 0.0201 for the Northwest Florida Water Management District. These are proposed rates, not adopted ones. Together they come to about 9.42 mills. Inside the city, the City of Tallahassee's adopted rate for fiscal 2026 was 4.4072 mills. That's the prior year's figure, so treat the in-city row below as a rough guide.
| Tax year | Non-school exemption, existing Florida homesteader | Non-school exemption, new arrival in exemption years one through four | Estimated yearly gap, unincorporated Leon | Estimated yearly gap, inside city limits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2027 | $150,000 | Existing exemption | About $929 | About $1,363 |
| 2028 | $250,000 | Existing exemption | About $1,871 | About $2,746 |
Starting in 2029, the larger exemption would adjust for inflation, and TaxWatch says the savings would grow with it, so the gap after 2028 would be wider than these 2028 figures. Over four exemption years at 2028 levels, the unincorporated gap adds up to roughly $7,500 at today's proposed rates, before any inflation adjustment. In the city it comes closer to $11,000. Two buyers paying the same price could carry very different costs of ownership for half a decade. That gap won't appear in any listing price.
For context, the median sale price for an existing single-family home in the Tallahassee metro area was $350,000 in August 2026, according to Tallahassee Reports. That figure covers Leon, Gadsden, Jefferson, and Wakulla counties together.
The Phrase About the U.S. Constitution Is Doing Real Work
The newcomer provision applies only "to the extent permitted by the U.S. Constitution," so the wait could be challenged in court. A July 2026 commentary in the Florida Specifier was written by Bartow's city attorney and a law student. It argues that the five-year residency restriction likely violates the Fourteenth Amendment right to travel under Saenz v. Roe. That's an argument, not a ruling, and no court has decided the question.
The amendment has already been in court once. On August 4, Leon Circuit Judge David Frank ruled that the original title, "Save our Homes from Excessive Property Taxes," was a political slogan rather than a statement of what the measure does, according to the Florida Phoenix. The Phoenix also reported his finding that the summary left out something important: the measure would give the Legislature authority over how local governments spend property tax revenue. Revised language was filed August 13. The amendment itself didn't change.
So anyone weighing the December 31 line is weighing a rule that may face another legal test after the election.
Why Leon County Feels It Harder Than Most
The savings in the table come out of local budgets, and Leon County starts with less room than most Florida counties. In its FAQ, the county notes that FSU, FAMU, Tallahassee State College, and major state facilities are all tax-exempt. As the state capital, Leon serves a large amount of property that pays nothing into the tax roll.
Here are the county government's own projections, from the same FAQ:
- Once fully phased in by fiscal 2029, the $250,000 exemption and the 5% non-homestead cap together would cut county property tax revenue by about $70.7 million a year. That estimate is based on the Leon County Property Appraiser's parcel-level analysis.
- The county would still collect about $165 million. About $161 million of that is already committed to state mandates and constitutional officers, which would leave roughly $3.5 million for everything else, from parks to stormwater to animal control.
- Leon doesn't qualify as a "fiscally constrained" county, so it wouldn't receive the state offsets those counties get.
The state's Revenue Estimating Conference projects a somewhat different county loss. Its July 2026 estimate puts the county's loss at $75.12 million in fiscal 2028-29 and the City of Tallahassee's at $18.47 million that year. Florida TaxWatch puts the five-year total for all local governments in Leon County at $447.0 million. The published sources don't explain why the county and state estimates differ.
Raising the tax rate to fill the gap is harder than it used to be. Under a companion law, SB 4-F, the county commission needs a two-thirds vote to set a rate above the rolled-back rate. Going past 110% of that rate takes a unanimous vote or a voter referendum. That's why the county's FAQ lists solid waste fees, stormwater fees, fire service assessments, and permit fees among the likely responses. Those fees fall on newcomers and long-time owners alike. A newcomer in the waiting period could pay any new fees in full while getting none of the larger exemption.
Fees are already a real line on Leon bills. An unincorporated homestead's 2026 proposed tax notice shows solid waste rising from $40 to $80 and a new $223 fire rescue assessment, for $388 in non-ad valorem charges this year. Those amounts were set before the vote and have nothing to do with Amendment 3. Your own parcel's figures are on the Leon County Property Appraiser's site.
Buyers the Residency Line Doesn't Reach
Some buyers aren't affected by the December 31 date at all. The county's FAQ says second homes, rentals, and investment properties generally don't qualify for the homestead exemption. Under Amendment 3, though, the yearly cap on assessment increases for those properties would drop from 10% to 5%. A buyer of a rental near campus would gain slower assessment growth regardless of where they lived on New Year's Eve.
School taxes stay outside all of it. The amendment applies only to non-school levies, and the county notes that for most homeowners the school portion is usually the largest part of the bill. A broader proposal to eliminate non-school homestead taxes entirely, HJR 201, died in committee on March 13, 2026, so it won't appear on the ballot.
Questions to Bring to a Tax Professional Before an Offer
If you're planning a Tallahassee purchase from out of state in the next year, these questions can help you prepare:
- What counts as Florida residency on December 31, 2026 for my household, and what would document it?
- In what year would I first claim a Florida homestead exemption, and when would my fifth exemption year fall?
- What are the adopted millage rates and non-ad valorem assessments for this specific parcel?
- Is the home inside the City of Tallahassee, which adds a city levy that increases both the tax and the potential gap?
- If the waiting period were struck down, would anything about my plans change?
This post is general information about a ballot measure. It isn't legal, tax, or financial advice, and the right answer for your household should come from a tax professional or attorney who knows your situation.
At First & Main Real Estate Group, we work on both sides of the Georgia–Florida line every week. We're glad to sit down with you, pull the tax notice on any Tallahassee home you're considering, and help you put the December 31 date on your moving calendar before you make an offer.
