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Judge Orders Rewrite Of Florida Property Tax Ballot Measure
August 5, 2026
The title and summary of a property tax cut proposal to be placed on the November ballot contain political rhetoric and are misleading, and must be redrafted, a Leon Circuit Court judge ruled late Monday.
“Voters are entitled to a fair, clear, accurate and non-misleading ballot statement to assist them in making their critical determination,” Judge David Frank wrote in his 18-page ruling. “The present ballot language would deprive the voters of the opportunity to make a meaningful decision.”
The proposal was drafted by Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has toured the state slamming the spike in property tax revenues over the last six years by local governments. The measure increases the homestead exemption from $50,000 to $150,000 in 2027 and raises it to $250,000 in 2028. Another provision reduces the annual cap on assessment increases for non-homestead properties from 10 percent to 5 percent.
But before passing it the GOP-led Legislature changed the measure to carve out the portion of property tax bills that pay for public schools from the increase in the homestead exemption.
A spokeswoman for DeSantis did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment Tuesday.
The ruling is a win for the groups that initially brought three different lawsuits against the proposed amendment before they were consolidated into one case.
Among those who brought the legal challenges were Save Our Voters From Misleading Ballot Language, a nonprofit formed to challenge the proposal, Thomas Campenni, former Mayor of Stuart, and Michael Davey, former Mayor of Key Biscayne, former U.S. Rep. Al Lawson, D-Tallahassee, and former Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg.
But the victory doesn’t mean the measure will be tossed from the ballot. Under state law, if the ruling isn’t appealed Attorney General James Uthmeier has 10 days to rewrite the ballot summary in line with Frank’s instructions.
“Our goal here right from the beginning was not to take this off the ballot,” Jamie Cole, attorney for Save Our Voters From Misleading Ballot Language, told the News Service of Florida. “We want the voters to have the opportunity to make an informed decision and in order to do that they need fair and accurate language.”
At an event in Panama City Beach on Tuesday, Uthmeier told reporters he’s still evaluating the ruling but he supports property tax cuts.
“I want to give people property tax relief. I would like to see people find that relief,” Uthmeier said. “A lot of people are struggling. They are hurting. I am going to be voting for the amendment.”
Brandes noted the court faces a deadline near the end of the month to get the proper ballot language settled before November ballots are finalized, so any appeal could jeopardize the measure.
“It’s an option but we’ll see if the (Attorney General) exercises it, but they run into a real time crunch if they start doing that,” Brandes said.
In his ruling, Frank detailed specific changes that should be made to the ballot summary.
For example, after stating “this amendment benefits Florida taxpayers by:” the ballot summary uses the phrases “exempting homestead properties from taxation,” “ensuring funding for core services,” “protecting small businesses” and “ensuring fairness for Florida residents.”
None of those phrases should be used, the ruling states, as they are “political rhetoric, not neutral, not explanation.”
Frank also took issue with the ballot summary’s omission of how the measure could change the nature of the “home rule” provisions of the state constitution, which give local governments broad discretion to spend property tax revenues.
Under the proposed amendment, cities and counties would have their property tax spending restricted to a list of approved uses: “public safety, education and schools, infrastructure, natural resources, bond debt service, retirement benefits for employees, operations and administration and, except as prohibited by general law, other expenditures approved by county officers or county or municipal governing bodies.”
Critics of the proposal have argued that would give the Legislature, not local governments, the final say over their budgets.
“The amendment purports to change the constitutional baseline of city and county power by placing in the Constitution for the first time the Legislature’s right to control ad valorem tax spending,” Frank wrote.
by Gray Rohrer, The News Service of Florida
Comments
10 Responses to “Judge Orders Rewrite Of Florida Property Tax Ballot Measure”
It’s sad how the Governor proposed “Eliminating” property tax altogether so no one can “Steal” your home from you but when it made its way down the line to the various taxing entities it turned into a “Tax cut”
Everyone knows “Cuts” get raised back up the following year so they’re basically useless.
It was even proposed to eliminate property tax for Senior Citizens but the administrative greed snuffed that out.
For years our property tax has been an endless pot of pork for irresponsible projects that start and never get completed, look around “Millions of dollars of abandoned road and building projects litter the City & County as monuments of irresponsibility with ourf property tax dollars”
But somebody got rich off of them.
The waste in the Cities and Counties is obscene.
Not to mention the abysmal Public School record, Children cannot even read, write or perform basic math operations or even speak correctly but the Public education system continually drives up our property taxes every year.
Property tax isn’t the problem; Homeowner’s and vehicle insurance is the problem.
REGARDING:
“Voters are entitled to a fair, clear, accurate and non-misleading ballot statement to assist them in making their critical determination,” Judge David Frank wrote
Thank you sir. Truth in voting is important. We might make a good decision or a bad one, but better it be an informed one.
I hope everyone here likes a 23 percent sales tax to make up for the lost revenue so the county can fix the roads that everyone always complains about.
With twice as many homes in the tax base why weren’t taxes rolled back to begin with? SPEND SPEND SPEND
As expected politicians are getting away with it. They filed a lawsuit so their colleagues can spend as they want in whatever they want without any accountability to the tax payer . Their piggy bank is their piggy bank and we the taxpayers and citizens will not get any relief . I am a regular person with limited value yet this smells like untreated sewage .
In other words, liberals, and their judges, do not want homeowners to have a break, they ‘need’ our money for their pockets.
Let’s replace it with a Politician Tax.
The bottom line is you should be able to own your home
that you worked hard to pay for for 15 or 30 years.Without
Buracratic government interference!they need to revamp how the
Local governments get funded
Someone has to step in to get the local tax and wildly spend government under control. And if it is the state, so be it. Escambia County has proven that both taxing authorities are not capable of self control. YES on #3 and NO for the penny sales tax.