Lee County's own estimate puts a number on the November property tax amendment: 58 percent of the homestead tax base
The Lee County Property Appraiser has put its own numbers to the property tax amendment Florida voters decide in November, and the numbers are large. In an estimate dated June 17, the office modeled every taxing authority in the county under the two homestead exemption levels the amendment would create and under its proposed cap on non-homestead assessments.
For the county general revenue fund, the taxable value of homesteaded parcels is estimated at $53.18 billion. Applying a $150,000 exemption takes that to $32.31 billion, a drop of 39.2 percent. Applying the $250,000 exemption takes it to $22.46 billion, down 57.8 percent, or about $30.7 billion of taxable value removed from the roll. The county's total just value across 215,880 homesteaded and 354,974 non-homesteaded parcels is $210.18 billion.
The school figures are the ones worth reading twice. In the appraiser's table, the school taxable value of homesteaded property is $58.86 billion under current law, under the $150,000 exemption, and under the $250,000 exemption. It is the same number in all three columns, because the amendment reaches only non-school levies.
The effect is uneven across the county. Measured against each authority's current homestead base at the $250,000 level, the Lehigh Acres fire district would lose 90.0 percent, Cape Coral 69.2 percent, Fort Myers 66.4 percent, Bonita Springs 38.4 percent and Sanibel 23.7 percent. A flat exemption is worth proportionally more where homes are worth less.
The separate proposal to tighten the annual assessment cap on non-homestead property from 10 percent to 5 percent is far smaller in the first year, trimming the county's non-homestead base by $2.19 billion, or 2.3 percent.
The measure is CS/HJR 1-F, filed with the Secretary of State on June 16. Under the Florida Senate's description of the resolution it passed on June 2, the exemption reaches $150,000 on January 1, 2027 and $250,000 on January 1, 2028, indexed to inflation after that, and the 5 percent assessment limit begins in 2027. One caveat sits underneath the appraiser's arithmetic. The estimate applies the exemption to homesteaded parcels as they stand today, while the resolution grants the full exemption only to those holding Florida residency on or before December 31, 2026, with newer residents limited to a $50,000 exemption for four years. Article XI, Section 5 of the state constitution requires 60 percent approval.
