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Florida Legislature enacted property-tax ballot measure with misleading title and summary drafted mostly by DeSantis's office

On June 16, 2026, Florida officers signed and filed with the Secretary of State CS/HJR 1F, a joint resolution the Legislature had passed June 2, 2026 (75-26 House, 30-9 Senate), placing a homestead-exemption property-tax amendment titled "Save Our Homes from Excessive Property Taxes" on the November 2026 ballot. The ballot title and summary language was drafted initially by Gov. Ron DeSantis's office and then altered by legislative leaders. On August 4, 2026, a Leon County circuit judge ruled the title and summary unconstitutionally misleading and ordered a rewrite.

Jurisdiction
Florida
Location
Tallahassee, Florida

Abuses documented

Actors

On June 16, 2026, Florida legislative officers signed and filed with the Secretary of State CS/HJR 1F, "Save Our Homes from Excessive Property Taxes," a joint resolution the Florida House had passed 75-26 and the Senate 30-9 on June 2, 2026, placing a homestead-exemption property-tax amendment on the November 2026 general-election ballot. The amendment would raise the homestead exemption from $50,000 to $150,000 in 2027 and to $250,000 in 2028, lower the annual assessment-increase cap on non-homestead property from 10% to 5%, and newly write into the state constitution a list of purposes for which local governments may use ad valorem tax revenue.

Gov. Ron DeSantis called the special legislative session that produced the amendment, and his office drafted most of the ballot title and summary language voters will see, though legislative leaders altered parts of it before passage. DeSantis has framed the measure as addressing Florida's affordability crisis; opponents, including local governments and public-safety groups, warned it would cut revenue needed for schools, police, and fire service -- Seminole County alone estimated a potential loss of up to $409 million.

Updates

2026-08-04 — Leon County judge ruled the ballot title and summary unconstitutionally misleading, ordered a rewrite [3, 4]

On August 4, 2026, Leon County Circuit Judge David Frank ruled in an 18-page opinion that the ballot title and summary for the amendment violate Florida law governing ballot language. Frank found the title, "Save Our Homes from Excessive Property Taxes," "akin to a political slogan" rather than a neutral description, and found the summary's claim that the amendment "benefits" taxpayers begs the very question voters are being asked to decide. The ruling did not remove the amendment from the ballot but ordered Attorney General James Uthmeier to rewrite the disputed language, with a compliance deadline of August 14, 2026 absent an appeal.

Why we recorded this

Free and fair elections depend on ballot language that neutrally describes what voters are deciding, not language that markets a preferred outcome. The Florida Legislature enacted a property-tax constitutional amendment carrying a ballot title -- "Save Our Homes from Excessive Property Taxes" -- and summary language a court later found reads like a political slogan and begs the question of whether the amendment "benefits" the very taxpayers it claims to help, while omitting that the amendment newly writes the Legislature's control over local tax spending into the constitution. This archive records when a state enacts ballot language designed to sell a measure rather than describe it, denying voters the neutral information they need to cast an informed vote.

Sources

  1. CS/HJR 1F (2026) - Save our Homes from Excessive Property Taxes — Florida House of Representatives primary accessed August 5, 2026
  2. Florida Legislature OKs tweaked property tax amendment for November ballot — ClickOrlando (WKMG) secondary accessed August 5, 2026
  3. Amendment 3 ballot title, summary language, don't pass muster, judge rules — Florida Phoenix investigative accessed August 5, 2026
  4. Judge orders Florida to rewrite the property tax amendment ballot language — WUSF investigative accessed August 5, 2026

See also