Population, Millage & HJR 1F Impact

About This Comparison

This section tracks Lee County’s countywide operating millage rate from FY 2010-11 through FY 2024-25 and compares it to Florida counties of similar population. Peer counties are those that shared a similar population size to Lee at some point during this period: Brevard, Polk, Pasco, Volusia, Seminole, Sarasota, Manatee, Osceola, and Lake. These nine counties ranged from roughly 300,000 to 850,000 residents over the 15-year window. Millage rates shown are countywide BCC operating millage only — the same measure used throughout this page. Source: FL Dept. of Revenue annual millage compliance reports (MillCapComp series) and FL Association of Counties Table 5 (Aug 2025). FY years refer to the fiscal year in which taxes are levied (e.g., FY 2024-25 = taxes levied on the 2024 assessment roll).

The Amendment: HJR 1F — “Save Our Homes from Excessive Property Taxes”

On June 2, 2026, the Florida Legislature passed HJR 1F (House 75–26, Senate 30–9). It goes on the November 3, 2026 ballot requiring 60% voter approval. Key provisions: the non-school homestead exemption rises from the current ~$50,722 (inflation-adjusted under Amendment 5, passed Nov. 2024, effective Jan. 2025) to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028, with CPI indexing from 2029. School district levies are explicitly excluded. Floridians who establish Florida residency on or after January 1, 2027 receive only the existing $50,000 base exemption for their first five years before qualifying for the full expanded exemption. The annual assessment increase cap for non-homestead properties also drops from 10% to 5%, though this secondary effect is not modeled in the adjusted rates shown here.

What the Adjusted Rate Columns Represent

The two adjusted millage columns show the revenue-neutral rate each county would need to adopt to collect the same total county operating revenue it collects today, after the expanded exemption removes taxable value from its base. This is a planning scenario only — not a prediction of what counties will actually do. Counties may instead reduce services, increase fees, or receive state backfill. Any millage increase above the rolled-back rate also requires a supermajority vote of the governing body under Florida Statute §200.065.

Revenue-Neutral Adjusted Millage Formula

The adjusted rates are calculated using a parcel-level mechanics model that treats three groups differently rather than applying a uniform reduction to the whole tax base:

Non-homestead properties (commercial, industrial, rental, vacant, agricultural) are entirely unaffected by HJR 1F — they continue paying millage on their full taxable value.

Homestead properties above the new threshold lose the taxable value between the current exemption and the new threshold, but remain on the tax roll for the value above the threshold.

Homestead properties whose assessed value falls below the threshold lose their entire remaining taxable value and pay zero county tax. Counties with lower average home values — particularly rural interior counties — lose a larger fraction of their homestead base than high-value coastal counties even at an identical homestead share.

How avg_assessed Is Derived

The average assessed (SOH-compressed) value of homestead SFR parcels is the most consequential input — it determines what fraction of a county’s homestead parcels fall entirely below the $150K or $250K threshold and therefore disappear from the tax roll entirely. It is computed in two steps from the FL DOR 2024 County Profiles:

Step 1 — Average just (market) value per homestead SFR parcel: The County Profiles contain a parcel table showing SFR parcel counts and total just values for the homestead side of each county. Dividing homestead SFR just value by homestead SFR parcel count yields the average market value per parcel.

Step 2 — Apply the SOH compression ratio: Florida’s Save Our Homes amendment caps annual assessed value increases at 3% for homestead properties, so long-term owners are assessed well below current market value. The county-level SOH compression is approximated by the ratio Total County Taxable Value / Total County Assessed Value, also drawn from the 2024 County Profiles. Multiplying the average market value by this ratio produces the estimated average assessed value — the figure the exemption thresholds are actually applied against.

Example: Miami-Dade has approximately 774,000 homestead SFR parcels with an average just value near $615,000. With a SOH compression ratio of ~0.76, the average assessed value is approximately $467,000. Even after the $150,000 exemption, those parcels retain substantial taxable value and the county’s adjusted millage rises only modestly. By contrast, Holmes County’s average homestead assessed value of ~$52,000 falls below today’s $50,722 exemption — those parcels already pay zero county tax — so the amendment has no additional effect there.

Important Caveats

Data Sources