Why Florida 2026 Property Tax Bills All Failed
Dear Friends & Neighbors,
(Please click on red links & note magenta)
Florida legislative session is officially over, unfortunately those of you who have been waiting for property tax relief will be disappointed. Here is a clear, structured breakdown of each bill, what it was trying to do, and why it did not make it to the governor’s desk, listed below:
Description of the video, in italics, below:
Tallahassee just slammed the door in your face. The 2026 Florida legislative session is officially over, and if you were looking for property tax relief, you didn’t just get a “no”—you got a total absolute 100% failure. In this video, we break down the legislative negligence that left homeowners stranded. From the death of total tax abolition to the failure of the HOA Bill of Rights (HB 657), we’re naming names and looking at the wreckage of the March 13th session close, in the video published on March 22, 2025, by Florida Real Estate Insider, as “Your Government has FAILED You! Florida Property Tax Update“, below:
Description of the video, in italics, below:
Florida Legislature Just FAILED Homeowners on Property Taxes — DISASTER Update, in the video published on March 24, 2026, by The World Inside, as “Florida Legislature Just FAILED Homeowners on Property Taxes — DISASTER Update“, below:
Description of the video, in italics, below:
This is how to kill property taxes without destroying Florida. Your local politicians want you to believe they’re spending every dollar wisely… and if you just give them a little more… things will get better. You know that’s a lie. So what are they really spending your property tax money on? In the video published on March 21, 2026, by Grant Warrington, as “THIS Will Kill Property Taxes Without DESTROYING Florida!“, below:
Description of the video, in italics, below:
🧾 1. HJR 201 — Full elimination (immediate)
What it proposed
- Eliminate all non-school property taxes on homesteads
- Keep only school taxes
- Require governments to maintain police/fire funding
In plain English
👉 Your primary home → almost no property tax (except schools)
Why it died
- Massive fiscal shock (billions lost instantly)
- Too aggressive for Senate
- Stalled in Ways & Means (budget committee)
🧾 2. HJR 203 — Phase-out over time (MOST IMPORTANT ONE)
What it proposed
- Gradually eliminate non-school property taxes over ~10 years
- Increase exemption annually (≈ $100k/year) until fully exempt
- Ultimately same end result as HJR 201
In plain English
👉 Property tax slowly goes to near zero for homesteads
Why it died
- Passed House
- Died in Senate Appropriations
- Concerns about:
- ~$18B budget hole
- forcing local governments to raise other taxes
👉 This was the closest to passing
🧾 3. HJR 205 — Senior-only tax elimination
What it proposed
- Eliminate non-school property tax ONLY for age 65+ homeowners
In plain English
👉 Seniors → near zero property tax
👉 Everyone else → unchanged
Why it died
- Still expensive (revenue loss)
- Less broad political support (benefits narrower group)
- Stuck in Ways & Means
🧾 4. HJR 211 — “Save Our Homes” portability expansion
What it proposed
- Expand how accumulated tax savings (“Save Our Homes”) transfer when moving
- Let homeowners carry more tax benefit to new property
In plain English
👉 Move to a new house → keep your low tax base
Why it died
- Less urgent than elimination bills
- Overshadowed by bigger proposals
- Never advanced out of committee
🧾 5. HJR 213 — Assessment growth slowdown
What it proposed
- Change property reassessment from every year → every 3 years
In plain English
👉 Your property value (for tax purposes) updates less often → slower tax increases
Why it died
- Made it far (to House calendar)
- Leadership never brought it to a final vote
- Lower priority vs elimination proposals
🧾 6. HB 657 — HOA reform / termination
What it proposed
- Create legal pathway to terminate HOAs
- Add transparency + conflict-of-interest rules
- Create community association courts
- Allow easier dissolution of HOA governance
In plain English
👉 Much easier to:
- dissolve HOAs
- challenge boards
- reduce HOA control
Why it died
- Complex + controversial (affects millions of homes)
- Opposition from HOA industry & local governments
- Large, multi-topic bill → hard to pass in one session
🧠 BIG PICTURE (WHY ALL OF THEM DIED)
🔴 1. Financial shock (dominant reason)
- These bills remove funding for:
- police
- fire
- roads
- local services
👉 Result:
- Either:
- service cuts
- OR new taxes/fees
🟠 2. Senate = gatekeeper
- House was aggressive
- Senate was cautious
👉 Anything big died there (especially HJR 203)
🟡 3. Too many competing ideas
Instead of 1 plan, there were multiple:
- eliminate now (201)
- eliminate later (203)
- seniors only (205)
- tweak system (211, 213)
👉 No unified path → nothing passed
🔵 4. Timing
- Some bills:
- stuck in committee
- never scheduled for vote
👉 In Florida, not scheduled = dead
⚠️ But reality:
👉 These are multi-year reforms
Most likely future path:
- NOT HJR 201 (too extreme)
- NOT HJR 205 (too narrow)
🟢 Most likely to come back:
👉 HJR 203-style phased reduction
🧠 BIGGEST INSIGHT (important)
These bills failed—but:
👉 The direction is VERY CLEAR
- Florida leadership wants to reduce property taxes
- It’s politically popular
- It WILL come back
Gathered, written, and posted by Windermere Sun-Susan Sun Nunamaker More about the community at www.WindermereSun.com
We Need Fair Value of Solar
~Let’s Help One Another~
Please also get into the habit of checking at these sites below for more on solar energy topics:
www.kiva.org/team/sunisthefuture
www.facebook.com/sunisthefuture
