Meanwhile, 2 rural hospital districts would lose most of their funding under the proposed change.
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Four South Florida public hospital systems would shoulder more than 70% of the $323 million that public hospitals across the state stand to lose over three years if voters approve Amendment 3, a Florida Policy Institute (FPI) analysis found.
The Orlando-headquartered nonprofit examined the 28 hospital and health care taxing districts statewide that currently levy property taxes to underwrite treatment for uninsured and underinsured patients.
Its finding: For two of those districts — one in North Florida, one in Central Florida — the projected three-year losses would exceed three-quarters of what they collect in a typical year.
The North Broward Hospital District, which operates as Broward Health, tops the heaviest-hit list with a potential shortfall of $100.4 million across the three-year span, followed by the Health Care District of Palm Beach County, which stands to shed about $66.5 million.
Miami-Dade’s Jackson Health System, which does not operate its own taxing district but draws county dollars from a mix of property and non-property levies, would lose about $63.7 million, according to figures the system’s government relations office provided to FPI.
Other reductions over three years, FPI said, include:
— $43.4 million from the Sarasota County Public Hospital District.
— $11.2 million from the West Volusia Hospital Authority.
— $10 million from the Halifax Hospital Taxing District.
— $8.9 million from the Indian River County Hospital District.
— $8.2 million from the North Lake County Hospital District.
— $5.5 million from the Hendry County Hospital Authority.
— $2.6 million from the Southeast Volusia Hospital District.
— $2.2 million from the South Broward Hospital District.
— $1 million from the Baker County Hospital Authority.
Smaller districts face proportionally steep damage. North Lake County’s projected loss equals 88% of what the district takes in annually, FPI found.
Meanwhile, in Baker County — whose only hospital lacks an OB-GYN, leaving residents without a safe place to give birth — the comparatively modest $1 million shortfall amounts to roughly 76% of the authority’s yearly hospital revenue.
FPI found that the leanest budget the authority ran in 17 years, $775,000, came during the Great Recession, and the Hospital Authority closed that funding gap by hiking the local millage rate.
West Volusia’s picture is similar. The authority collects about $21 million a year at its current rate, according to figures Hospital Authority Chair Rakeem Ford supplied to FPI, meaning its $11.2 million projected loss would wipe out more than half a typical year’s revenue.
FPI Policy Analyst Erica Monet Li, who authored the report, said most voters have no idea their tax bills bankroll local care.
“It’s important that Floridians understand the risks associated with adopting sweeping property tax cuts without first considering alternative solutions to the affordability crisis in our state,” she said in a statement.
FPI CEO Sadaf Knight said, “In a state where access to affordable healthcare is already a major issue, Amendment 3 would make it harder for hospitals to serve our communities and families.”
Dr. Olveen Carrasquillo, a physician and Associate Dean at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, said federal Medicaid and Affordable Care Act Marketplace reductions have already squeezed South Florida providers. Another hit of this magnitude, he said, would be “untenable” for his patients.
“These funding cuts to public hospitals like our own Jackson Memorial would cause reduced healthcare access and higher costs for our patients — from longer wait times at the ER, to fewer health specialties offered,” he said in a statement.
Some districts are more economically durable than others. FPI noted Broward Health’s size and diverse tax base would help it to absorb its projected loss, which represents about 40% of its property tax intake but only 5% of its overall revenue.
The Palm Beach County district — where the $66.5 million equals 22% of total revenue — told FPI it remains financially stable and well-positioned to handle the change.
Sarasota Memorial’s ad valorem dollars amount to less than 5% of $2 billion in operating revenue, though FPI argues they still anchor capital projects and the county’s only trauma center, obstetrics unit and NICU.
A caveat about FPI’s numbers: Without property-by-property data for the special districts, the group started with county-level projections and divided them up according to each district’s tax rate. That approach assumed property values are spread evenly across a county.
FPI acknowledged that counties, which can see what each parcel is worth, could come up with different figures.
Amendment 3, if passed with at least 60% support from voters in November, would raise the homestead exemption to $150,000 on Jan. 1, then to $250,000 in 2028, applying to every local property tax levy except those funding schools.
It would also tighten the cap on how fast assessments can rise on non-homestead property while creating a route to eliminating non-school homestead property taxes altogether.
Lawmakers placed it on the ballot through legislation the GOP-dominated Legislature pushed through during a Special Session Gov. Ron DeSantis called in late May.
Nothing in the measure replaces the hospital money.
FPI previously projected the $250,000 exemption alone would cost school districts an average of $5 billion annually and lead to counties losing $4.8 billion per year, rising to $8.59 billion and $8.65 billion under full elimination by the 2030-31 fiscal year.
The state has launched a Save Our Homes website, where homeowners can calculate the money they’d keep if Amendment 3 passes.
People who move to Florida after passage would owe homestead taxes for five years.
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