Property Taxes in Jacksonville

In Jacksonville the City Council sets the rate, because the city and Duval County are one consolidated government. A homeowner in Arlington, Mandarin or on the Northside pays one general city levy instead of separate city and county levies, and the Council also sets the rates that apply to the Beaches cities and the town of Baldwin for their share of consolidated services. The Duval County School Board and other taxing bodies set their own millage, which appears on the same bill.

A mill is one dollar of tax per $1,000 of taxable value. The Jacksonville Daily Record put it in plain numbers in July 2026: one mill is equal to a $1 tax for every $1,000 of assessed property value, so a Duval County owner pays $11.1919 for every $1,000 of taxable value at the current city rate. The city's own tax structure page has long argued the consolidated setup keeps the burden low; using 2022 figures, it lists Jacksonville's combined millage rate of 17.0303 on real property against 19.1189 in Orlando, 19.7121 in Tampa and 20.6152 in Miami.

Value is the other half of the bill. The Duval County Property Appraiser, whose office sits at 231 East Forsyth Street, sets taxable values. The homestead exemption takes up to $50,000 off the assessed value of a primary residence, though the second $25,000 does not apply to school taxes, and it triggers the state homestead assessment cap, known as SOH, which limits future annual increases in assessed value to 3% or less on that homestead.

The schedule is fixed in the city's budget process guide. On July 1, certifications of taxable value arrive from the Property Appraiser. By July 15, or 15 days after certification, the Mayor presents a balanced budget to the City Council. Then, at the last Council meeting in July, the City Council adopts the maximum millage rate for Truth in Millage (TRIM) notice, the ceiling that gets printed on every Duval County owner's notice.

August and September belong to the Council Finance Committee, which holds department-by-department hearings and amends the Mayor's plan with the Council Auditor's office. At the first September meeting the amended budget is laid on the table for at least seven days under Ordinance Code section 106.210. The final vote comes at the last Council meeting in September, typically the fourth Tuesday, when the millage levy ordinances and the budget ordinances are adopted together. The fiscal year begins October 1.

In 2026 the dates fell this way. Mayor Donna Deegan presented a $2.03 billion budget on July 20. On July 28, Council voted 17-1 on Ordinance 2026-0500 to keep Jacksonville's maximum millage rate at 11.1919, with Rory Diamond voting no, according to the Jax Daily Record. Finance Committee hearings began August 10, and the Council adopted the budget and rate on September 22, 2026.

The TRIM notice is the proposed bill, mailed before the rate is final. The Florida Department of Revenue sets the statewide pattern: in August the property appraiser mails the Notice of Proposed Property Taxes, and before adopting a budget and millage, every taxing authority must hold public hearings under the TRIM rules. In Jacksonville the City Council holds two public hearings on the amended budget before it is adopted.

In 2026, News4Jax reported that the TRIM notices went out in mid-August and that Property Appraiser Joyce Morgan asked owners to check names, ownership, exemptions and taxable value. Duval County has more than 400,000 properties that are reviewed by the Property Appraiser's Office each year, Morgan said. Each notice lists the current and prior-year taxable value and the proposed rates from the city, the schools and other taxing bodies.

The notice also starts the clock on appeals. For 2026 the deadline to contact the Property Appraiser's Office, and to file with the Value Adjustment Board, was September 8. A rate held flat does not mean a flat bill: as Morgan noted, Jacksonville homeowners can still see higher property tax bills because of increases in property values, within the SOH cap for Duval County homesteads.

The rolled-back rate is the millage that would raise the same property tax revenue as the prior year, leaving out new construction. Every Jacksonville millage ordinance states it. In 2025, Jacksonville Today reported that the preliminary FY2025-26 rate was 11.3169 mills and that the ordinance also sets the rollback rate at 10.86140 mills. For FY2026-27 the rolled-back rate was 10.7689 mills, and adopting it would have cost the city about $53 million, the Jax Daily Record reported.

In June 2026, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 4-F, which raised the vote needed to keep or raise a rate. Under it, the Jax Daily Record explained, Council needed a two-thirds majority vote to keep the city's millage rate flat, where a simple majority had been enough; anything above 110 percent of the rolled-back rate now takes three-fourths. On the 19-member Jacksonville City Council, two-thirds is 13 votes.

Finance Committee chair Will Lahnen told the Daily Record the law may make a flat rate easier to pass than a cut. His example was the year before: in 2025, Council members passed a one-eighth mill reduction by a 10-9 vote, a margin that would not have carried under the new threshold. The Daily Record's illustration for 2026 used a $300,000 home with a $50,000 homestead exemption, which owes $2,797.98 in city tax at 11.1919 mills and would have owed $2,692.23 at the rolled-back rate.

The 2025 vote was the long one. The Jax Daily Record reported that the Jacksonville City Council meeting began at 3 p.m. on September 23, 2025 and adjourned at 4:26 a.m. the next day. Earlier in that session, Council voted 10-9 in favor of reducing the millage rate by one-eighth of a mill, which required cutting about $13 million from the Mayor's proposed $2.2 billion budget. That took the city rate from 11.3169 to 11.1919. Council member Rahman Johnson had pointed out in July 2025 that the previous cut came in 2022, in Mayor Lenny Curry's final budget.

The 2026 vote went the other way. With Amendment 3 on the November ballot, Jacksonville Today reported that the Council voted 16-3 on final approval of the property tax rate, with Diamond, Kevin Carrico and Mike Gay voting no, keeping 11.1919 mills. The same story reported the Beaches rate unchanged at 7.9012 mills and Baldwin at 9.4208 mills. The overall budget passed 18-1.

An owner who disagrees with a value starts with an informal review at the Property Appraiser's Office; if that fails, the next stop is the Value Adjustment Board. The VAB hears appeals of assessed values, exemption denials, greenbelt classification denials and portability. The VAB FAQ stresses that the VAB is an independent board established by Florida Statutes (Chapter 194) to hear taxpayer appeals, made up of two City Council members, one Duval County School Board member and two appointed citizens.

Petitions on the state DR-486 form go to the Clerk of the Value Adjustment Board in City Hall, Suite 305, at 117 West Duval Street, or online. The filing fee is up to $50.00 per parcel, payable to the Duval County Tax Collector, and owners appealing a timely homestead denial are exempt. A postmark does not count: the petition must be received at the downtown Jacksonville office by 4:30 p.m. on the deadline day. Hearings are held before special magistrates, are open to the public, and an owner who misses the hearing without a pending good-cause request gets a recommended decision upholding the Property Appraiser.

The 2026 budget was written around the November 3, 2026 ballot. Amendment 3 would raise the homestead exemption from $50,000 to $150,000 in FY2028 and $250,000 in FY2029, indexed to inflation after that, and Jacksonville City Council auditors estimated the city would lose $300 million in property tax revenue in FY2029. The Daily Record's math put the same $300,000 Duval County homestead at $559.60 in city tax in FY2029 if the measure passes and the rate stays at 11.1919.

The Finance Committee moved money into reserves and tied some grant spending to the referendum outcome. As of October 9, 2026, the city's Finance Committee page lists Will Lahnen as chair and Chris Miller as vice chair; Nick Howland is Council President and Donna Deegan is Mayor. Last verified: October 9, 2026, on the City of Jacksonville website.