ORLANDO, Fla. — A constitutional amendment is on the ballot this November that homeowners in the state of Florida will want to pay attention to.

As it is now, Florida homeowners have the ability to cap the assessment of their property at a 3 percent increase every year. That's allowed under the Homestead or "Save Our Homes" act.

The way the Florida Constitution is currently written, homeowners have two years to move that homestead benefit from one property to another, so they can keep their person property taxes lower. These are portability benefits.

What Amendment 5 would do is increase the time period so that homeowners will have a three-year time period to claim portability benefits. In the event you do not have a homestead benefit for any of the previous three years years, you would lose the ability to move it. 

Board certified Real estate attorney Nishad Kahn weighed in on the pros and cons for the proposed changes. 

“The amendment will definitely benefit homeowners,” Khan said. “Because they (homeowners) will have the ability to reduce their property taxes, and they will have more time to transfer that portability. It obviously hurts the cities and counties because they are going to get reduced taxes.”

The amendment was approved for the ballot by the Florida Legislature. In the budget analysis for the amendment, the Revenue Estimating Conference estimated that the amendment, if approved, would reduce local property taxes by $1.8 million, "beginning in fiscal year 2021-2022, eventually growing to an annual reduction of $10.2 million." 

Depending on the size of a home, if the amendment were to pass homeowners can expect to save anywhere from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars.

In order for the amendment to pass, 60 percent of voters must vote yes on it.