SAVING MONEY?

An Opinion By Jan Bergemann

Published October 6, 2026

I think we all agree on our property insurance premiums being too high – creating a huge hole in our private budget. There is some light at the end of the tunnel: Quite a lot of property insurance companies have filed applications with the Florida Insurance Commissioner to lower their premiums – partially in double digits. But since we don’t have any influence on our premiums for our property insurance policy there is not much we can do but wait. It seems that recent changes of the laws regulating property insurance are working and there is serious hope for improvement. And please, don’t listen to the folks who want to create a government-run HURRICANE INSURANCE! Have you ever seen anything run by the government that really works in favor of us – the citizens? Remember the $4 you pay each year for the Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares and Mobile Homes. What do you get in exchange? A lot of frustration and never real answers or enforcement of the statutes!

But anybody who pays for property insurance pays as well property taxes. And the money for paying both comes most likely from the same account. And this is where your vote comes in on November 3: VOTE YES on the Ballot on: No.3 Constitutional Amendment: Increased Homestead Exemption! It will for sure lower your property tax payment significantly!

Don’t listen to the normal doomsday predictions claiming that it will seriously decrease our public services. Nothing is further from the truth. All Florida counties have had in the last few years a huge increase in property tax income. I know: Your County Commissioners are telling you that they didn’t increase the millage rates in the new budget. What they don’t tell you: The property tax appraiser is increasing your property value on your tax bill, so your payment increases despite the same millage rate. And it doesn’t mean that the property value of your home has really increased. They increase the value even if the value of your home has decreased in reality.

If you compare the county budget from 10 years ago with this year’s budget, you will find that the county income from property taxes has increased by more than tenfold – or even more. The commissioners might have to cut some pork. Easy to do: Just look at the last few pages of the budget for the next year. We pay for a lot of nonsense and so-called social services where nobody really knows where the money is actually used for.

If Constitutional Amendment No.3 passes, the county commissioners will still have plenty of money to pay for all the services our property taxes should really be used for.

So, no matter how you feel about MIDTERM ELECTIONS: Go and vote YEAH on Amendment No.3 – it will create the biggest savings you have the opportunity to influence for yourself! And it will help your personal budget – not the budget of some county (city) commissioners who like to spend money like drunken sailors.