Florida Realtors puts $10 million behind Amendment 3 campaign.
The post Florida Realtors launches Vote Yes on 3 campaign appeared first on Florida Politics – Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government..
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Amendment 3 has spent the Summer being argued over by judges, sheriffs, county budget writers, and planners.
Nobody has been selling it.
That changes Wednesday.
Florida Realtors is rolling out Vote Yes on 3, the public campaign behind November’s property tax measure.
The pitch is affordability. The landing page opens with “EVERYTHING KEEPS GOING UP!” in capital letters.
The association put $10 million into its own Vote Yes on 3 political committee last week. Its Board of Directors endorsed the amendment in August, at governance meetings following the group’s Convention and Trade Expo.
The campaign site’s paid-for line lists 7025 Augusta National Drive in Orlando. That is Florida Realtors’ headquarters.
“Affordability is (at) the forefront for every Floridian, and they need meaningful relief,” Florida Realtors 2026 President Chuck Bonfiglio Jr. said in a statement announcing the launch. “We’ve spent years working to help people buy homes. But buying the home is only half the challenge. We also need to make sure families can afford to keep the homes they worked so hard to purchase.”
Bonfiglio is the broker-owner of AAA Realty Group in Plantation. He took office in January over an association of more than 230,000 members and 50 local Boards, and named taxes, insurance, and affordability as his priorities then.
Amendment 3 would raise the homestead exemption for non-school property taxes from $51,411 today to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028. Inflation adjustments start in 2029. School taxes are untouched.
It would also cut the annual cap on assessment increases for non-homestead property, including rentals and commercial buildings, from 10% to 5%. Florida Realtors says that gives landlords, tenants, and businesses more predictability.
The Pinellas County Property Appraiser estimates savings of roughly $1,203 per property in 2027 and $2,423 in 2028, based on 2025 millage rates. What a homeowner actually keeps depends on how local governments use their rates afterward.
“Floridians need a change,” Bonfiglio said. “This is an opportunity to provide meaningful relief now, while continuing the broader conversation around property taxes.”
The amendment reached the ballot as House Joint Resolution 1F, passed June 2. It got there without most of what Gov. Ron DeSantis wanted.
Legislators stripped out his school tax relief and his trust fund to backstop local governments. DeSantis spent the Summer noting that “what the Legislature did wasn’t my proposal.”
He changed course Aug. 31 and said he would help, while ruling out leading a political committee or raising money for one.
He is the only name listed under “Endorsed By” on the Realtors’ new site.
Voters will also read different words than the Legislature wrote. Leon County Circuit Judge David Frank ruled the title “Save Our Homes From Excessive Property Taxes” was “more akin to a political slogan” and ordered Attorney General James Uthmeier to rewrite it.
The Revenue Estimating Conference, in the House’s final bill analysis, estimated the hit to local non-school property tax revenue at $4.95 billion in fiscal year 2027-28, $8.78 billion the following year, and $11.86 billion recurring. Florida TaxWatch pegs the five-year total at $45.8 billion.
The Florida Sheriffs Association, the Florida State Fraternal Order of Police, the Florida Professional Firefighters, and APA Florida all oppose the amendment. Sierra Club Florida joined them Tuesday.
So does the Florida League of Cities: “Amendment 3 is not a tax cut, it’s a tax shift.”
None of them has put up $10 million.
Sachs Media’s Breakthrough Research division had the amendment at 63% in August, and at 65% among voters shown Uthmeier’s plainer rewrite. The threshold is 60%, with no partial credit.
The University of North Florida found that support fell from 61% to 45% after voters heard the $11.86 billion figure. A James Madison Institute survey had it sliding from 74% to 55% once tradeoffs came up.
Amendment 3 polls like a winner right up until somebody explains it.
The campaign’s FAQ tells visitors a $250,000 exemption does not mean $250,000 in savings, and that no single policy solves affordability.
On local government budgets, the site answers, “That’s an important question,” allows the impact “will vary by community,” and argues uncertainty is not a reason to leave a known problem alone.
Most ballot campaigns do not put that in writing.
Seeking Rents’ Jason Garcia raised a question the site does not take up. He reported over the weekend that cutting homestead taxes could push home prices up rather than down, because buyers fold lower future carrying costs into what they will pay today.
Garcia cited Realtor.com research estimating a 7% to 9% jump in values if homestead property taxes went away entirely. Amendment 3 does not go that far. It moves in the same direction.
Realtors earn a percentage of the sale price. They have also been making the affordability argument for years, well before there was an amendment to fund.
Bonfiglio is right that buying the home is only half the challenge. The eight weeks to Nov. 3 are an argument about which half Amendment 3 actually helps.
For the first time since June, one side of that argument can afford to run ads.
The post Florida Realtors launches Vote Yes on 3 campaign appeared first on Florida Politics – Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government..
