The Florida Homestead property tax exemption has been watered down ever since its inception in 1935 so that today the poor and middle class families pay an ever higher proportion of their modest salaries to local governments. Amendment 3 finally corrects this growing inequality and deserves a YES vote.
Remember the original intent of the homestead exemption? It was to shield families from losing their homes to foreclosure due to high city and county property taxes. In fact, the $5,000 homestead exemption in 1935 was more than double the median home value of $2,000 — meaning that only the rich paid city and county property taxes.
Amendment 3 is a good start but it doesn’t go far enough. It only provides a $150,000 exemption in year one and $250,000 in year 2. That’s a far cry from the median home value of $400,000. While it is great to see that the amendment will finally index the exemption to inflation every year, it is not indexed to the high Florida home price inflation but rather to the much lower consumer price index.
JIM DOYLE
Gulf Breeze