Amendment 3 has become something close to a political orphan in Florida. The governor who spent a year pushing for it says he'll vote yes but won't campaign for it. Law enforcement groups are against it. A judge just ruled its ballot language is misleading and ordered it rewritten.

Byron Donalds has made it the centerpiece of his campaign for governor.

POLITICO reported on August 6 that Donalds "appears to be sliding into the role of chief cheerleader by default" — encouraging voters to back it, running television ads promising to cut property taxes, and pledging to keep cutting after that.

"I'm voting yes because the people of Florida are not a never-ending piggybank."

That's Donalds at a rally in The Villages last week. His campaign has spent at least $10 million on ads, according to the tracking service AdImpact.

What the amendment does

If Amendment 3 passes in November, it raises the homestead exemption to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028.

State economists project it would cut funding to local governments by as much as $12 billion a year starting in 2031.

Twelve billion dollars a year is not a rounding error. It's police, fire, ambulances, parks, libraries, road maintenance, water systems — the things cities and counties actually do with property tax money.

The sheriff who endorsed him calls it a train wreck

Here's the detail that should carry the most weight, because it isn't coming from a Democrat.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd endorsed Donalds earlier this year. This week, Judd stood at a news conference and tore the amendment apart:

"We all want reasonable tax relief, and that's possible. This is the most ludicrous piece of unresearched stuff I've seen."

Judd warned it would hit everything from law enforcement response times to funding for parks and libraries. The Florida Sheriffs Association has raised objections. Local officials from both parties have. Ron DeSantis — whose idea this originally was — said "what the Legislature did wasn't my proposal" and made clear he wouldn't lead the campaign for it, adding he wasn't sure it would even hit the 60% threshold.

DeSantis walked away from it. Donalds picked it up and started running.

Renters get nothing

Florida is the worst state in the nation for renters, according to a Consumer Affairs analysis published in April. Rent eats 37.4% of the typical income here — the most cost-burdened renters in the country.

The homestead exemption is for people who own the home they live in. If you rent, you don't get it. Not a dollar.

What renters do get is the other end of the equation. When cities lose $12 billion, they look for it somewhere else.

"Renters are not going to receive the homestead exemption. A landlord might get a tax benefit, but there is absolutely no guarantee that a renter sees a lower rent payment," said state Rep. Rob Long. "At the same time, cities are going to have to increase fire assessments, utility charges, or other fees to keep services running. And those costs will likely still be passed along to tenants."

Kelly Lynch works in Gainesville and can't afford to live there. She drives more than 20 miles each way from Bronson, in Levy County. She and her husband want to buy a house someday.

"I know plenty of people that work full time. Single moms living in Gainesville that would honestly face eviction or homelessness if their rent increases or their cost of living increases any more. None of us can comfortably afford an increase."

Donalds is selling Amendment 3 as an affordability plan. For the most cost-burdened renters in America, it is the opposite of one.

Even the ballot language didn't survive

A circuit court judge in Tallahassee ruled this week that Amendment 3's ballot summary is misleading, and gave Attorney General James Uthmeier until August 14 to rewrite significant portions of the title and summary.

That matters for the polling Donalds is riding. A James Madison Institute survey of 1,400 Floridians found 74% support — comfortably above the 60% needed. But when voters were told passage could mean less funding for local government services, support dropped to 55%. Below the threshold. It fails.

"Education equals opposition when it comes to this amendment," said Jackson Peel of the Save Our Services — No on 3 coalition. "When people hear what this bad policy will do to their communities, they reject it."

So the measure passes if Floridians don't learn what's in it, and fails if they do. And the man spending $10 million on ads about it is the one whose ads say "cut property taxes" while he plays basketball with his sons.

Who Donalds actually answers to

This is a familiar shape for Donalds.

He co-sponsored a bill to strip heat protections from Florida's outdoor workers — blocking the first-ever federal rule protecting people from dying of heat on the job, in the state where that happens.

And his campaign runs on money most Floridians will never see the likes of: Citadel's Ken Griffin wrote a $10 million check to a PAC backing him, the single biggest contribution of the race.

A billionaire's $10 million, a $10 million ad buy, and a constitutional amendment that hands money to homeowners and bills to renters.

Donalds has also promised that if Amendment 3 fails, he'll ask the constitutional revision commission that convenes in 2027 to do a "top-to-bottom property tax overhaul" anyway. And if it passes, he says he'll build a funding formula so small and rural counties don't get wrecked — a formula that does not exist, for a shortfall he is campaigning to create.

Florida's primary is August 18.

Source

POLITICO, "Donalds takes role as biggest backer of Florida's property tax measure," by Gary Fineout, and Florida Phoenix, "No on 3 campaign focuses on the pain for renters if property tax cut passes," by Mitch Perry, both August 6, 2026.