Florida voters are far more worried about their property insurance bills than their property tax bills, according to a new poll that found 63% of Floridians rank insurance as the bigger concern compared with 36% who point to taxes. The remaining 1% said they simply did not know which issue troubled them more. For homeowners like Jose Sellas of Jacksonville, the numbers reflect a reality he has lived for years.
Sellas moved to Jacksonville in 2021 and said his premium has climbed steadily ever since, jumping from about $1,800 to nearly $3,000. “Every year it keeps going up,” he said, according to Action News Jax. Sellas, who is 100% disabled from the military, has lived in the city for about six years and told the station he is far more concerned about insurance than property taxes.
The poll, conducted by the University of North Florida's Public Opinion Research Lab in partnership with the Orlando Sentinel and the South Florida Sun Sentinel, found the concern about insurance cuts across party lines, with Democrats, Republicans and independents all generally more worried about coverage than taxes. Sean Freeder, director of the Public Opinion Research Lab and an associate professor of political science at the University of North Florida, said the results show insurance has not faded from voters' minds despite a political focus on tax relief. “Elected officials need to keep property insurance at the top of their minds and not just property taxes,” Freeder said, per the same report.
Why Coverage Options Keep Shrinking
Freeder also pointed to a structural problem behind the frustration: some of the larger, more financially stable insurers that operate across many states simply do not write policies in Florida. That leaves the average Florida property owner with fewer options, and potentially more unstable ones, according to the station's report.
A separate statewide survey of 1,511 Florida homeowners, cited by the Herald-Tribune, found similar results, with respondents prioritizing the insurance crisis over property taxes. That poll found 81% of homeowners believe Florida's insurance market is failing to improve or getting worse, and 25% said they had been dropped by their carrier within the past five years. Sixty-nine percent of respondents in that survey said recent state legislative reforms have mainly benefited the insurance industry rather than consumers or trial lawyers.
Claims Denied, Policies Switched
The Herald-Tribune's survey also found that more than half of respondents had switched insurers, and 45% of those who had filed a claim in recent years said it was denied. Sixty-one percent reported holding policies with insurers that operate solely or primarily within Florida, rather than larger national carriers, underscoring the same instability Freeder described.
Amendment 3 Adds Another Variable
The insurance anxiety comes as Florida voters also weigh Amendment 3, a measure on the November 2026 ballot that aims to eventually eliminate non-school property taxes on homesteads. Under the proposal, the state's non-school homestead exemption would rise to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028, according to Florida Policy Project. A separate proposal, HJR 203, sponsored by Rep. Monique Miller, would increase the exemption by $100,000 each year for 10 years, as reported by the Miami Times.
State economists predict Amendment 3 would reduce local property tax revenue by nearly $12 billion on a recurring basis, per Florida Policy Project's analysis, and warn that costs would shift as localities either raise other taxes and fees or cut public services. A growing coalition of public entities has raised similar concerns, warning the amendment could force cuts to public services, according to the Jacksonville Business Journal.
A Second Poll Shows a Similar Divide
A Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy survey found comparable sentiment, with 63% of Florida voters saying insurance relief is a higher priority than tax relief, including 73% of Democrats, 58% of Republicans and 60% of independents, the Miami Times reported. Only 32% called property tax relief the bigger priority in that survey. When voters were told that eliminating the non-school homestead tax could mean service cuts or new taxes, support flipped: 49% opposed the idea, 39% supported it and 12% remained undecided, per the same report.
The insurance debate is not new to Tallahassee. Florida lawmakers filed dozens of bills aimed at reining in homeowners' insurance premiums during the 2025 legislative session, according to the Florida Phoenix. For homeowners like Sellas, whose bill keeps climbing year after year, the question voters will be weighing this fall is whether any of those efforts, or Amendment 3 itself, will actually bring relief.
