Every Florida property tax bill has two halves. The top half is ad valorem tax: a millage rate times your taxable value. The bottom half is a list of flat charges with names like solid waste, stormwater, fire rescue and street lighting. Those are non-ad valorem assessments, and Amendment 3 does not touch them.
That bottom half is suddenly the most important part of the bill. Since voters approved Amendment 3 on November 3, 2026, local officials have started saying out loud which levers they might pull. In Martin County, fire rescue and stormwater fees on the tax bill were named as options (WUSF/WQCS, Nov. 8, 2026). Sanford agreed to study a fire fee (Central Florida Public Media, Nov. 10, 2026). Jacksonville and St. Johns County said no new fees for now (Jacksonville Today, Nov. 9 and Nov. 11, 2026).
So before anyone argues about new fees, it helps to know what is already on the bill. We took the Florida Department of Revenue’s count of every county and city non-ad valorem assessment for fiscal year 2025-26 and divided it by the number of improved parcels in each county’s 2026 tax roll.
The short version: Florida counties and cities billed about $4.08 billion in non-ad valorem assessments in 2025-26. That works out to about $460 per improved parcel statewide, and about $400 in the median county that reports any. It ranges from more than $1,000 in Charlotte County to under $150 in Baker and Martin. In Duval County it is about $458. None of it shrinks under Amendment 3.
What a non-ad valorem assessment is
“Ad valorem” means “according to value.” Your school, county and city taxes are ad valorem: a $400,000 home pays twice what a $200,000 home pays at the same rate, after exemptions. A non-ad valorem assessment is not based on value. It is a charge for a specific service that benefits the property, usually set per home, per unit, per acre or by a formula such as impervious area for stormwater.
Counties and cities can put these charges on the property tax bill under what Florida calls the uniform method. Before a new or higher assessment goes on the bill, the local government must hold a public hearing and mail notice to affected owners (section 197.3632, Florida Statutes). Once on the bill, the assessment is collected with your taxes. If the bill goes unpaid, the assessment is treated like the tax, so it can end up in a tax certificate sale.
The common ones are:
- Solid waste: garbage, recycling and yard waste collection and disposal. It is the largest category by far.
- Fire rescue or fire control: often charged per dwelling unit, with separate rates for commercial buildings.
- Stormwater or drainage: often tiered by home size or hard surface area.
- Street lighting, road paving and water or sewer extensions: usually limited to a neighborhood or special benefit area (a municipal service benefit unit, or MSBU).
Community development district (CDD) charges also appear on many bills, but a CDD is an independent special district. The state report we used counts county and city assessments only, so CDD charges are not in the numbers below. If you are buying in a CDD community, run those separately with our CDD carrying cost calculator.
Why Amendment 3 does not reach these lines
Amendment 3 works on value. Starting January 1, 2027, the homestead exemption from non-school taxes rises from $50,000 to $150,000, then to $250,000 in 2028. For non-homestead property, the annual cap on assessment increases for non-school taxes drops from 10 percent to 5 percent (what Amendment 3 changed). Both changes lower taxable value. A non-ad valorem assessment never used taxable value in the first place, so there is nothing for the amendment to cut.
That has a striking effect on lower and mid-priced homesteads. Take a Jacksonville homestead with an assessed value of $200,000:
- 2026 bill: the first $50,000 is exempt from non-school taxes, so non-school taxable value is $150,000. At a typical Duval non-school rate of about 11.5 mills, that is roughly $1,728 a year.
- 2028 bill: the $250,000 exemption covers the whole assessed value. Non-school taxable value is $0, and so is the non-school ad valorem tax.
- The fees stay. Jacksonville’s residential solid waste fee is $354 on the 2026 step of the schedule the City Council adopted in 2025 and $384 on the 2027 step, up from $151.80 before the increase (Jacksonville Today, May 27, 2025). The stormwater fee is $60 a year for an average-size home (City of Jacksonville, accessed Nov. 12, 2026).
For that owner, the city and county part of the bill goes from roughly $1,728 in value-based tax plus about $414 in fees to about $444 in fees at the 2027 rates and nothing else on the non-school side. School taxes are separate and unchanged. The fee lines go from about a fifth of the non-school bill to all of it. Run your own numbers with the Amendment 3 property tax calculator.
This is the reason fees are getting attention. As we showed in our break-even analysis, once a homestead’s non-school taxable value is near zero, a millage increase barely reaches it. A flat fee reaches every parcel.
What Florida already collects, county by county
The Department of Revenue publishes non-ad valorem assessments by function, once for county governments and once for cities, grouped by county. For 2025-26 (report dated January 23, 2026), county governments levied about $2.57 billion and cities about $1.51 billion. Of the county-government total, solid waste is about $1.31 billion, roughly half, and fire control is about $595 million, close to a quarter.
Dollar totals mostly track population, so we divided each county’s combined county and city total by its improved parcels: parcels with a recorded year built in the 2026 Department of Revenue tax roll. We also show the total as an “equivalent millage”: the rate that would raise the same money from the county’s non-school taxable value. That shows how much a county already leans on flat charges instead of the rate.
| # | County | Assessments, 2025-26 | Per improved parcel | Equivalent mills | Share of non-school bill (approx.) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Charlotte | $134.9M | $1,078 | 4.04 | 28% |
| 2 | Hendry | $16.8M | $976 | 4.75 | 34% |
| 3 | Monroe | $46.0M | $944 | 0.94 | 16% |
| 4 | Broward | $644.1M | $905 | 2.11 | 14% |
| 5 | Sarasota | $220.8M | $883 | 2.03 | 21% |
| 6 | Okeechobee | $14.2M | $835 | 4.20 | 32% |
| 7 | Hernando | $64.4M | $711 | 3.71 | 23% |
| 8 | Lee | $281.1M | $688 | 1.89 | 15% |
| 9 | Marion | $124.0M | $664 | 3.25 | 37% |
| 10 | Alachua | $59.0M | $662 | 2.39 | 20% |
| 11 | Columbia | $17.0M | $660 | 4.47 | 33% |
| 12 | Osceola | $110.0M | $648 | 1.88 | 18% |
| 13 | St. Lucie | $101.7M | $648 | 2.42 | 13% |
| 14 | DeSoto | $7.3M | $629 | 3.47 | 22% |
| 15 | Hillsborough | $295.3M | $618 | 1.70 | 16% |
| 16 | Levy | $13.6M | $610 | 4.39 | 28% |
| 17 | Lake | $99.5M | $589 | 2.17 | 18% |
| 18 | Polk | $170.8M | $572 | 2.52 | 19% |
| 19 | Highlands | $26.5M | $544 | 3.12 | 23% |
| 20 | Hardee | $4.2M | $504 | 2.24 | 18% |
| 21 | Indian River | $40.9M | $500 | 1.27 | 12% |
| 22 | Brevard | $138.1M | $498 | 1.97 | 17% |
| 23 | Wakulla | $7.9M | $496 | 3.33 | 29% |
| 24 | Orange | $207.1M | $472 | 0.88 | 8% |
| 25 | Duval | $164.6M | $458 | 1.45 | 11% |
| 26 | Suwannee | $7.7M | $438 | 3.45 | 26% |
| 27 | Miami-Dade | $371.2M | $430 | 0.77 | 7% |
| 28 | Flagler | $27.3M | $427 | 1.58 | 16% |
| 29 | Madison | $3.0M | $414 | 3.09 | 25% |
| 30 | Dixie | $3.3M | $404 | 4.31 | 28% |
| 31 | Jefferson | $2.9M | $397 | 3.09 | 28% |
| 32 | Putnam | $13.6M | $377 | 2.47 | 20% |
| 33 | Gilchrist | $2.7M | $333 | 2.46 | 20% |
| 34 | Clay | $28.3M | $331 | 1.46 | 14% |
| 35 | Escambia | $42.9M | $325 | 1.49 | 12% |
| 36 | St. Johns | $44.8M | $316 | 0.74 | 9% |
| 37 | Citrus | $23.2M | $274 | 1.56 | 15% |
| 38 | Nassau | $12.8M | $274 | 0.69 | 9% |
| 39 | Bradford | $2.9M | $274 | 2.22 | 17% |
| 40 | Pasco | $66.9M | $258 | 1.09 | 10% |
| 41 | Bay | $26.6M | $258 | 0.85 | 11% |
| 42 | Volusia | $60.7M | $246 | 0.95 | 6% |
| 43 | Collier | $52.8M | $230 | 0.32 | 5% |
| 44 | Lafayette | $659,217 | $220 | 1.96 | 18% |
| 45 | Palm Beach | $121.0M | $196 | 0.34 | 3% |
| 46 | Leon | $17.9M | $188 | 0.67 | 7% |
| 47 | Seminole | $29.2M | $182 | 0.51 | 6% |
| 48 | Taylor | $1.7M | $178 | 1.31 | 12% |
| 49 | Union | $646,835 | $156 | 1.99 | 16% |
| 50 | Baker | $1.4M | $148 | 0.94 | 10% |
| 51 | Santa Rosa | $11.8M | $147 | 0.65 | 8% |
| 52 | Manatee | $26.3M | $136 | 0.35 | 3% |
| 53 | Sumter | $11.0M | $124 | 0.44 | 6% |
| 54 | Martin | $8.6M | $112 | 0.23 | 2% |
| 55 | Pinellas | $40.0M | $98 | 0.29 | 2% |
| 56 | Washington | $665,367 | $63 | 0.57 | 6% |
| 57 | Walton | $1.4M | $23 | 0.03 | 1% |
| 58 | Franklin | $147,277 | $16 | 0.04 | 0% |
| 59 | Okaloosa | $300,770 | $3 | 0.01 | 0% |
| 60 | Gulf | $2,472 | $0 | 0.00 | 0% |
| Florida | $4,076M | $460 | 1.20 |
Northeast Florida counties in bold.
Source: Florida Department of Revenue, Non-Ad Valorem Assessments by Function Type, Counties and Municipalities, FY2025-26 (Jan. 23, 2026). Improved parcels and non-school taxable value: Florida DOR 2026 tax roll, compiled by Momentum Realty. Per-parcel figures are averages across all improved parcels, including commercial, and are approximate. County and city government assessments only; independent special districts such as CDDs, fire districts and solid waste authorities are not included, so some counties are understated. No amount is reported for Calhoun, Gadsden, Glades, Hamilton, Holmes, Jackson or Liberty.
What stands out
Southwest Florida leans hardest on flat charges. Charlotte, Hendry, Sarasota, Okeechobee, Hernando and Lee are all near the top. Charlotte’s county government alone levied about $134.5 million across several function lines. In Charlotte, Hendry and Okeechobee, assessments equal more than 4 mills of non-school taxable value.
Low numbers do not always mean low charges. Palm Beach looks light at about $196 per parcel because its solid waste charge is billed by an independent authority that is not in this report. Martin County at about $112 is closer to a true low: officials there told WUSF the county has few fees on the tax bill today, which is why they are now on the list of options.
Northeast Florida sits near the middle. Duval ranks 25th at about $458 per improved parcel, most of it the consolidated city’s solid waste and stormwater fees. Flagler is about $427, Putnam about $377, Clay about $331, St. Johns about $316 and Nassau about $274. Baker is among the lowest at about $148.
Northeast Florida, line by line
Duval (Jacksonville). The city bills a residential solid waste fee and a stormwater fee on the tax bill. The solid waste fee more than doubled in 2025 and steps to $384 in 2027. The city takes low-income exemption applications for these fees each year. The Department of Revenue’s report shows about $95.4 million of Duval’s $164.6 million total in a single function line consistent with solid waste. City leaders said on November 9 they are not considering new fees, fire assessments or a JEA franchise fee increase to offset Amendment 3, and estimated the 2027-28 budget at about $150 million to $200 million lower than it would otherwise be.
St. Johns. The county raised its residential solid waste assessment from $254 to $334 for 2025-26, with yearly increases to $454 by 2030 (Jacksonville Today, Aug. 5, 2025). That schedule was set before Amendment 3 and is already on the books. On November 11, the county said its goal is real cuts, not new fees, and put about $100 million of capital projects on hold.
Clay. Commissioners kept the 2025-26 solid waste collection assessment at $262 and the disposal assessment at $96 (Clay County commission meeting, Aug. 26, 2025, as summarized by Citizen Portal). Clay’s per-parcel average of about $331 is close to the statewide median.
Nassau. Nassau’s county assessments totaled about $12.8 million in 2025-26, about $274 per improved parcel and under 0.7 mills of equivalent rate, one of the lighter loads in the region.
Fee amounts change each year by resolution. Check your own bill or your county’s property tax page for the lines that apply to your parcel.
What could change in 2027
Three things are worth watching.
The special session. The governor’s proposed “taxpayer bill of rights” is aimed at fees, and legislative leaders have not committed to a date for acting on it (WFLA via Yahoo, Nov. 10, 2026). Any limit on new or higher assessments would matter more than any millage rule. Track it on our Amendment 3 tracker.
The math limits on fees. Fees are not a bottomless lever. In Lee County, staff found user fees could raise only about $15 million to $17 million against a much larger gap (Florida Weekly, Oct. 21, 2026). Florida courts also require that an assessment pay for a service that specially benefits the property and be fairly apportioned, so a fee cannot simply replace general revenue.
Non-homestead rates. Martin County’s preliminary analysis put the non-homestead increase needed to cover next year’s gap at about 19 percent, though one commissioner doubted the board would do it. A second home or rental pays any rate increase on its full capped value. Our non-homestead cap calculator now has a rate scenario: on a $400,000 property in Duval growing 8 percent a year, a rate increase of about 18.5 percent would cancel the new 5 percent cap’s savings over ten years.
None of these fee or rate changes has been adopted for 2027.
What this means if you own, buy or sell
If you own a homestead: your Amendment 3 saving is real, but it is a saving on the value-based lines. Look at the bottom half of your 2026 bill. Those lines are your floor, and any new assessment adds to it dollar for dollar.
If you are buying: the seller’s tax bill is not your tax bill, but the non-ad valorem lines usually carry over unchanged, because they do not reset with the sale price. Add them, plus any CDD and HOA charges, to your monthly cost. Our true cost of ownership tool puts them next to the mortgage, insurance and tax.
If you own a rental or second home: you pay the fees and you have no homestead exemption, so a rate increase reaches you in full. Run the scenario before you set next year’s rent or budget.
If you are selling: buyers increasingly ask about the full bill. Having the current bill, the fee lines and any pending special assessment ready can save a renegotiation late in the deal. If your taxes went up while your value did not, our explainer on why Florida property taxes go up walks through the TRIM notice.
How we built these numbers
Assessment totals are the Florida Department of Revenue’s fiscal year 2025-26 reports of non-ad valorem assessments by function, one for counties and one for municipalities grouped by county, both dated January 23, 2026. We added the two for each county. Seven counties show no amount in either report.
Improved parcels are parcels with a recorded year built in the 2026 Department of Revenue tax roll (the NAL file), counted by Momentum Realty. Non-school taxable value is the sum of each parcel’s non-school taxable value in the same file. Equivalent millage is the assessment total divided by non-school taxable value, times 1,000. The share column compares assessments with an estimate of non-school ad valorem tax, built from that taxable value and the typical FY2025-26 non-school rate for each county in our county property tax data; it is approximate, because city and special district rates vary inside each county.
Fee schedules for Jacksonville, St. Johns and Clay come from the local sources named in the text. Momentum Realty is a real estate brokerage, not a tax advisor or law firm, and this is not tax or legal advice. Confirm your assessments with your county tax collector. Data compiled November 12, 2026.
Frequently asked questions
What is a non-ad valorem assessment on a Florida tax bill?
It is a flat charge for a specific service, such as solid waste, stormwater, fire rescue or street lighting, collected on the property tax bill. It is not based on your home’s value, so it is usually the same for similar homes regardless of price.
Does Amendment 3 reduce non-ad valorem assessments?
No. Amendment 3 raises the homestead exemption from non-school taxes and lowers the non-homestead assessment cap, which both reduce taxable value. Non-ad valorem assessments do not depend on taxable value, so the amendment does not change them.
How much do Florida counties and cities collect in non-ad valorem assessments?
About $4.08 billion in fiscal year 2025-26, according to the Florida Department of Revenue: about $2.57 billion levied by county governments and $1.51 billion by cities. That is about $460 per improved parcel statewide. Independent special districts such as CDDs are not included.
Which Florida counties have the highest non-ad valorem assessments?
Per improved parcel, Charlotte (about $1,078), Hendry ($976), Monroe ($944), Broward ($905) and Sarasota ($883) were highest in 2025-26 in county and city assessments. Counties whose solid waste or fire charges are billed by independent districts can look lower than they are.
What fees are on a Jacksonville property tax bill?
The City of Jacksonville bills a residential solid waste fee and a stormwater fee as non-ad valorem charges on the tax bill. The solid waste fee is $354 on the 2026 step of the adopted schedule and $384 on the 2027 step. The stormwater fee is $60 a year for an average-size home.
Can my county add a new fire or stormwater fee after Amendment 3?
It can propose one. Florida law requires a public hearing and mailed notice before a new or higher assessment goes on the tax bill, and the assessment must pay for a service that benefits the property. Lawmakers may consider limits on fees, but none had been adopted as of November 12, 2026.
Sources
- Florida Department of Revenue, Non-Ad Valorem Assessments by Function Type, Counties, FY2025-26, and Municipalities and County, FY2025-26 (both dated Jan. 23, 2026).
- Florida Department of Revenue, 2026 NAL tax roll files (parcel counts and non-school taxable value), compiled by Momentum Realty.
- WUSF/WQCS, Treasure Coast counties brace for budget hits, Nov. 8, 2026.
- Central Florida Public Media, local governments and Amendment 3 budgeting, Nov. 10, 2026.
- Jacksonville Today, Nov. 9, 2026 (Jacksonville budget) and Nov. 11, 2026 (St. Johns County).
- WFLA via Yahoo News, Florida lawmakers face pressure to implement Amendment 3, Nov. 10, 2026.
- Florida Weekly, property tax shift under Amendment 3, Oct. 21, 2026.
- Jacksonville Today, Jacksonville garbage fee increase, May 27, 2025; City of Jacksonville City Fees, stormwater fee tiers, accessed Nov. 12, 2026.
- Jacksonville Today, St. Johns County trash fees, Aug. 5, 2025; Clay County commission, Aug. 26, 2025 (Citizen Portal summary).
- Section 197.3632, Florida Statutes (uniform method for non-ad valorem assessments).