How Much Could Pasco Homeowners Save Under DeSantis’s Property Tax Plan? We Ran the Numbers

What DeSantis’s Property Tax Plan Could Mean for the Average Pasco County Homeowner

The governor’s “Save Our Homes” proposal heads to a special session this week. Here’s how the math could play out on a typical local home — and the parts of your bill it would leave alone.

Gov. Ron DeSantis is asking Florida lawmakers to put a sweeping property tax cut in front of voters this fall, one that would eventually erase taxes on the first $250,000 of a primary home’s value. For Pasco County, where the typical home is now worth roughly $350,000 and thousands of families have bought in over the past few years, the plan could reshape annual tax bills — though several big pieces of what homeowners actually pay would stay in place.

What the governor actually proposed

DeSantis unveiled the plan, called “Save Our Homes from Excessive Property Taxes,” at a roundtable in Tampa on May 27. He is calling lawmakers back to the Capitol for a three-day special session beginning June 1 to decide whether to place a constitutional amendment on the November 2026 ballot.

At its core, the proposal would raise the homestead exemption — the slice of a primary residence’s value that is shielded from property taxes — from the current $50,000 to $250,000. According to the governor’s office, lawmakers would then be directed to set a schedule that eventually pushes the exemption higher and, over time, eliminates property taxes on primary homes entirely.

The change would not happen all at once. Under the version filed with the Senate, the exemption would rise to $150,000 in 2027 and reach $250,000 in 2028. Only the value of a home above the exemption would remain taxable.

How it would look on a Pasco home

Pasco County’s typical home value is about $348,000, and the median sale price has hovered near $330,000 in recent months, according to housing market data. For a homeowner who bought recently — where the tax-assessed value sits close to the purchase price — the difference under a full $250,000 exemption would be substantial.

The Pasco County School Board offered a useful real-world anchor last summer: it calculated that the owner of a $350,000 home pays about $2,039 a year in school taxes alone. Adding county, fire and other local levies, a recent buyer at that price typically faces a combined homestead rate of roughly 16.4 mills, or about $16.40 per $1,000 of taxable value.

Using that representative rate, here is how a $350,000 Pasco home’s estimated annual bill could fall as the exemption phases in:

That works out to roughly $1,800 in savings the first year, climbing to about $3,400 once the full exemption is in place — if voters approve it and the plan applies to the entire bill.

Different price points, similar dollar break

Because the new exemption is a fixed amount, the dollar savings looks roughly the same for any home valued at $250,000 or more. The break is proportionally larger, though, for lower-value homes — and homes worth $250,000 or less would see their bill wiped out completely.

Estimates assume a recent purchase (assessed value near market value), the full $250,000 exemption in 2028, and a representative combined homestead rate of about 16.4 mills. Actual bills vary by community, exemptions, and how long a home has been owned. Long-time owners protected by the Save Our Homes cap often have lower assessed values, which would change these figures.

That structure tends to favor more affordable parts of the county. In communities such as Holiday, Hudson and parts of Port Richey, where many homes sell below $250,000, a typical homesteaded owner could end up owing nothing in property taxes. In higher-priced areas like Wesley Chapel, Land O’ Lakes and Trinity — where median prices run well above the county average — owners would still pay tax on the value above the exemption.

What the plan would NOT do

The headline is dramatic, but the proposal is narrower than “no more property taxes” suggests. Several costs that show up on or alongside a Pasco tax bill would not change.

It does not touch second homes, rentals or businesses

The exemption applies only to homestead property — the home someone lives in as a permanent resident. Vacation homes, snowbird properties, rental houses and commercial buildings are not covered. Owners of those properties would keep paying as they do now.

It does not erase CDD fees or special assessments

This is a key detail in fast-growing Pasco, where many newer subdivisions sit inside Community Development Districts. CDD assessments, fire assessments, stormwater charges and solid-waste fees are not property taxes in the legal sense, even though many appear on the same annual bill. The plan does not eliminate them, so homeowners in CDD communities would still see those line items.

It does not take effect right away

Nothing changes unless the Legislature approves the measure by a 60% vote in both chambers during the special session, and then at least 60% of voters say yes in November. Even then, the larger exemption phases in over 2027 and 2028.

It does not help new arrivals immediately

The proposal would let the state require people who move to Florida after the amendment passes to wait up to five years before qualifying for the full benefit — a provision the governor framed as a way to avoid drawing new residents purely to dodge property taxes.

The open questions for local services

Pasco’s county government, cities and school district all lean heavily on property taxes. The county school system alone serves more than 86,000 students on a budget topping $2.3 billion, much of it tied to local property tax revenue.

One unresolved point is how much of the bill the exemption would actually cover. An earlier House proposal this year targeted only non-school property taxes. The governor’s plan, as summarized publicly, refers to exempting the first $250,000 of value “from taxation” and lists schools among the services that remaining revenue should fund — but state analysts had not yet produced a formal impact study at the time of the announcement, and the school-tax question is one lawmakers are expected to settle. School taxes make up roughly 38% of a typical Pasco homestead bill, so the answer matters.

If school taxes were carved out, the estimated break on a typical $350,000 home would be closer to $2,000 than $3,400, and homes under $250,000 would still owe their school portion.

There is also a gap between the governor’s projections and existing state data. DeSantis said a $250,000 exemption would eliminate property taxes for about 60% of Florida homeowners, and a $500,000 exemption would do so for 92%. A September 2025 analysis by the Florida Legislature’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research found that about 28% of the state’s homestead properties have a market value of $250,000 or below, and 76% are valued at $500,000 or below. State researchers note that existing exemptions and the Save Our Homes cap can pull a home’s taxable value well below its market value, which could push the share paying nothing higher than the raw market-value figures suggest. No official estimate of how many homeowners would owe nothing under the plan had been released as of late May.

Statewide, the nonpartisan Florida Policy Institute estimated that fully eliminating property taxes on all primary homes would cost local governments and school districts about $18.5 billion a year. To address that, the governor’s plan would restrict remaining property tax revenue to core services such as public safety, schools and infrastructure, and would create a state trust fund to send grants to counties with smaller tax bases.

What happens next

The special session is scheduled for June 1 through 3. If the amendment clears the Legislature, it goes before Florida voters in November, where it would need 60% support to be added to the state constitution. Ballot language and the exact details — including how schools are treated and how local budgets are backfilled — could still change as lawmakers debate the measure.

For now, Pasco homeowners can estimate their own potential impact by looking at their property’s assessed value and current homestead status. The Pasco County Property Appraiser’s office offers a tax estimator tool, and official figures will become clearer once state analysts complete their review.

Pasco Community Website will continue following the special session and what it could mean for local tax bills. For more Pasco County news and updates, visit www.pascocommunity.com and follow along on Facebook and Instagram.