--- title: "Florida Ballot Measure Would Cut Homeowners’ Property Taxes and Lean on Canadians" description: "Gov. Ron DeSantis says Canadian snowbirds can help fill a projected $12 billion-a-year hole if Amendment 3 passes in November." author: "rews desk" published: 2026-10-04T08:00:00Z modified: 2026-10-04T10:02:29Z url: https://rews.cc/a/florida-ballot-measure-would-cut-homeowners-property-taxes-a-792781 language: en tags: ["trump", "economy", "immigration", "housing", "canada", "us"] publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)" --- # Florida Ballot Measure Would Cut Homeowners’ Property Taxes and Lean on Canadians *Gov. Ron DeSantis says Canadian snowbirds can help fill a projected $12 billion-a-year hole if Amendment 3 passes in November.* By rews desk · October 4, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/florida-ballot-measure-would-cut-homeowners-property-taxes-a-792781 ## In brief - Amendment 3, on Florida’s November ballot, would slash or eventually end property taxes for full-time residents - State economists project the change would cost local governments about $12 billion a year - Gov. Ron DeSantis says Canadian property owners, who hold an estimated $60 billion in Florida real estate, can help fill the gap - Canadian visits fell 20% in the winter season this year, and some snowbirds are selling and leaving - The measure needs a 60% yes vote to pass Florida voters will decide next month whether to slash property taxes for full-time residents, and Gov. Ron DeSantis has said who should pick up part of the bill: Canadians who own homes in the state, CBC News reported on Sunday. The measure, Amendment 3, was drafted by Mr. DeSantis’s Republican allies in the statehouse and goes before voters in the November midterm election. The governor has likened property taxes, which pay for law enforcement, fire departments, emergency medical services, disaster preparation and mosquito control, to a modern feudalism in which homeowners must “pony up money to the government just for the courtesy of using your own property.” If it passes, permanent residents, called homesteaders, would get a much larger exemption. Anyone whose primary residence is valued at $250,000 or less, roughly 60 percent of homesteaders by the governor’s office’s count, a figure that has been questioned, would pay nothing, and owners of more expensive homes would pay much less. The measure also directs the state to phase out homesteader property taxes entirely. The amendment needs a 60 percent supermajority, and at least one recent poll suggests it will clear that bar easily. State economists project the change will cost about $12 billion a year, forcing local and county governments to make deep cuts, find new money or both. Canadians own an estimated $60 billion worth of Florida property, and Mr. DeSantis has described them as a resource to tap. “I want Canadian tourists and Brazilian tourists subsidizing the state and making it so Florida residents pay less taxes,” he said at a news conference last year. “I don’t want to give Canadians a tax cut.” On Fox Business in June, he said local governments would still draw revenue from non-homestead property: “residential, Airbnb, Canadian snowbirds, commercial. That’s a lot of money that they have.” The measure itself would let the assessed value of non-homestead property, including Canadian-owned homes, climb as much as 5 percent a year, steadily raising what local governments collect. “They are going to start getting more revenue from existing taxes without having to add new taxes and they’re going to end up in a very stable situation very shortly,” Mr. DeSantis said. The governor has long needled Canada and first mocked the trade-war travel boycott, only to see the state tourism bureau report a double-digit drop in Canadian arrivals last year. Trips by Canadians, by far the largest source of international visitors to the state, fell 20 percent in the prime winter season this year, according to data cited by CBC News. Some snowbirds have had enough. Glenn McGill of Wiarton, Ont., has wintered for 15 years in North Fort Myers, but he told CBC News there has been a “stampede” of Canadians out of his retirement community, leaving only four behind. He has listed his home for sale in a market he called “pretty dry.” “They’re a greedy bunch of SOBs,” he said of state leaders. “They want to drive Canadians out.” Extra taxes “would hurt,” he added. “And this political thing with Trump, I’ve had enough of it.” Others have already gone. John May of Ottawa sold his Key West condo after tiring of hearing “Governor Trudeau” and “51st state” jokes, and Jo-Ann Rowe traded Fort Lauderdale for a rental in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Lilly White of Almonte, Ont., ended 25 years of Florida winters. “We’re just uncomfortable now,” she said. “We’ll always love the U.S. They’ll always be our neighbours. But we can also choose not to fall down the rabbit hole of what’s going on over there right now.” The departures are showing up in prices. Canadians account for more than 70 percent of international buyer demand in the Cape Coral area, according to Realtor.com data, and the firm says sellers face “real pricing pressure,” with listings sitting weeks longer than the national average. It projects the steepest price declines this year in the parts of Florida that have drawn the most Canadians, and Edie Ousley, a spokeswoman for the opposition group Vote No on 3, said a tax change could bring a flood of Canadian-owned listings. “Amendment 3 is a train wreck,” Ms. Ousley said in an interview with CBC News. “This is a tax shift, it’s not tax relief.” A shrinking Canadian base cannot cover what disappears with the homestead taxes, she said, and municipalities are already warning about cuts to law enforcement and 911 response times. “Everyone is going to lose with cuts.” Amendment 3 goes before voters in November. It needs 60 percent support to pass.