Miami-Dade Ballot Questions Explained: Three Amendments, Six Charter Questions, a School Tax and Miami's $450 Million Bond
The candidates get the attention, but the longest part of the Miami-Dade ballot is the questions. Here is what a yes and a no actually do on each one, from the state rainy-day fund to the Virginia Key marinas.
Every Miami-Dade ballot on November 3 carries the same skeleton of questions beneath the candidate races, and they are not small ones: three state constitutional amendments, six county charter referendums, a school-tax renewal, and - inside the City of Miami - a $450 million bond and a waterfront lease measured in decades. The Miami Patriot's 2026 voter guide, which paraphrases the official sample ballot, lays out what each yes and no does. Constitutional amendments need 60 percent of the vote to pass, and all three of this year's were placed on the ballot by the Legislature.
Start with the state. Amendment 1 grows Florida's rainy-day fund: a yes raises the Budget Stabilization Fund cap from 10 percent to 25 percent of general revenue and requires yearly deposits of the lesser of $750 million or whatever reaches the cap, with withdrawals allowed for critical state needs; a no keeps the 10 percent cap. Amendment 2 is a property-tax break for working land: a yes exempts equipment and other tangible personal property kept on agricultural land and used for farming or agritourism, starting with the 2027 tax year. Amendment 3 is the big household number: a yes raises the homestead exemption from non-school property taxes to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028, indexed to inflation after that, cuts the yearly assessment cap on non-homestead property from 10 percent to 5 percent, and limits what counties and cities may spend property taxes on, effective January 1, 2027.
The six county referendums run from officials' pay to parks. Referendum 1 replaces commissioners' fixed salary with an independent five-member salary commission whose decisions the commission cannot modify. Referendum 2 lengthens the district residency required to run for commissioner from six months to one year. Referendum 3 lets the commission schedule vacancy elections alongside other scheduled elections and sets minimum standards for municipal qualifying periods. Referendum 4 - the subject of its own earlier file on this desk - updates the Charter for the restored elected Sheriff, Tax Collector, Property Appraiser and Supervisor of Elections. Referendum 5 makes technical Charter changes, and Referendum 6 drops the rule tying park advertising to sponsorships, with the revenue staying in the park system.
Two money questions close the ballot. The school question renews the existing one-mill property tax from July 1, 2027 through June 30, 2031 for teacher and instructional pay and school safety, including at charter schools, watched by a citizen advisory committee; a no lets it lapse. City of Miami voters alone also decide the Safe and Ready Miami bond - $450 million in general obligation bonds for fire-rescue facilities and a new public-safety headquarters, repaid from property taxes at no increase in the current 0.5935 debt millage rate, with an annual independent audit - a companion question creating a permanent bond oversight committee, and the Virginia Key marinas lease: about 27.6 acres to Virginia Key, LLC for 45 years plus two 15-year renewals, at a minimum $2.2 million a year - about $204 million over the initial term - plus 6 percent of gross revenue, in exchange for about $80 million in private redevelopment of the Rickenbacker and Marine Stadium marinas. Sample ballots differ by address; the official version for any voter is at votemiamidade.gov.
