Amendment 3 would bring property tax cuts — and tough choices — to Winter Park

City Manager Randy Knight said during a Winter Park Chamber forum that the city could ‘survive’ the cuts, but warned they would come with painful budget trade-offs

Sept. 19, 2026

By Gabrielle Russon

Winter Park government will “survive” if Amendment 3 passes in November, although City Manager Randy Knight warned that property tax cuts would not come without “pains.”

In the first year, the city would need to axe an estimated $3.7 million from a $90 million budget, followed by another $7.5 million the following year, which Knight called “doable.”

But when the city conducted an exercise last month to practice eliminating nonessential services, such as wintertime pool access, Knight quipped, “You would’ve thought we had canceled Ted Lasso.”

Knight was part of a trio of speakers who expressed concerns about Amendment 3 during Friday’s Winter Park Chamber of Commerce panel, held in front of business and community leaders. Joining Knight were Orange County Tax Collector Scott Randolph and Florida TaxWatch CEO Jeff Kottkamp.

The Winter Park Chamber of Commerce has not taken a public stance on Amendment 3, although other economic organizations, including the Orlando Economic Partnership, have spoken out against it.

Under Amendment 3, a Winter Park taxpayer who receives the maximum benefit would save about $850 in the first year and $1,780 in the second year, which equals nearly $150 a month, Knight said.

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TaxWatch CEO Jeff Kottkamp, Orange Tax Collector Scott Randolph and Winter Park City Manager Randy Knight discuss the anticipated impacts of an amendment on the November ballot that would raise the homestead exemption. The Winter Park Chamber of Commerce hosted the forum on Friday.

With those savings come trade-offs, the panel warned.

Knight said Amendment 3 could force the city to raise its millage rate, increasing taxes on renters, businesses and homeowners of more expensive properties to make up for lost property tax revenue.

Local governments may also raise fees, Kottkamp said.

“You may vote for this thinking you’ll get a property tax reduction when, in fact, you won’t,” said Kottkamp, a former state lieutenant governor.

For local governments, the amendment could also have an impact on other fronts if they miss out on federal or state grants because they can no longer provide matching funds, Randolph said.

If at least 60% of voters approve Amendment 3 in November, the constitutional amendment would increase the state’s non-school homestead exemption to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028, with further increases tied to inflation beginning in 2029. 

The ballot amendment would also cut local government tax revenues by limiting future growth in the amount of taxes collected on non-homesteaded properties. The cap on annual assessment increases for those properties — anything from a Publix grocery store to an Amazon warehouse to a vacation home — would drop from 10% to 5%.

New Florida residents would be required to wait five years to receive the full increased property tax exemption.

Randolph, a Democrat and former state lawmaker, questioned whether the Legislature’s five-year waiting period for new residents was constitutional because it treats out-of-state and Florida residents differently for tax purposes.

“Look, Florida is built on the idea of attracting new people. I don’t know how you’re supposed to attract a business or attract a young couple or even a retiree coming into this marketplace,” Randolph said. “They’re already going to be paying the highest full market value when they buy the house. And then you’re going to tell them, ‘Oh yeah, you know what? Just for giggles, we’re not even going to give you the $250,000 exemption for five years.’”

The state Legislature voted to put Amendment 3 on the ballot during a three-day special session in June. The vote came without the state conducting any deeper economic impact studies to understand the consequences of overhauling property taxes statewide.

“When you have something this important, the way this was done was just not right. You don’t drop a bill and say, ‘Vote on this in three days,’” Kottkamp said.

State lawmakers acted after facing pressure from Gov. Ron DeSantis, who had been calling for property tax reform to lift the burden on residents struggling with rising costs. DeSantis has argued that people who have already paid off their homes are unfairly hit with rising property taxes and that local governments’ budgets are ballooning with wasteful spending.

DeSantis also expressed disappointment that Amendment 3 doesn’t go far enough to reduce school taxes because state lawmakers protected school funding in their ballot proposal.

Meanwhile, critics question whether Amendment 3 is another move by the state to take more control away from local governments, which set their own spending priorities.

Randolph called it “absurd” to say current homeowners are being “taxed out of their home” because the state’s Constitution already contains an amendment capping the annual increase in the assessed value of a homesteaded home at 3%, or the Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower.

But the ones “getting killed” by property taxes are new homeowners who purchased homes in the past five years, Randolph said.

“This amendment doesn’t fix that at all,” Randolph said. “And that’s what I wish Tallahassee would focus on — the fairness and the equity across the board — because if property taxes are supposed to reflect the services that are provided, we have shifted so much of that to the new entrants into the market.”

Instead of Amendment 3, Kottkamp is advocating for the state to make changes after the Florida Taxation and Budget Reform Commission meets next year. The commission, which convenes every 20 years, could develop a more thoughtfully laid-out proposal to reduce property taxes, he said.

In a conversation where all three panelists expressed skepticism and concerns, the most optimistic sentiment came from Kottkamp, who offered this assessment of Florida:

“This is still the greatest place to live and do business in the country, which means in the world. We just want to make sure we keep it that way,” he said.

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