Property Taxes in Tallahassee and Leon County

No single government sets the property tax on a house in Tallahassee. The bill that arrives each November is one consolidated notice from the Leon County Tax Collector, but it bundles separate levies from the City of Tallahassee, Leon County, the Leon County School District, the Children's Services Council and the Northwest Florida Water Management District. The city explains in its FY 2026 Budget in Brief that Florida law requires each county's Tax Collector to send one consolidated tax bill, and that all local governments and special districts in Leon County use this single tax bill.

The work is split by office. The Leon County Tax Collector describes it plainly: the Property Appraiser assesses the value of a property and the Board of County Commissioners and other levying bodies set the millage rates. The Property Appraiser then builds the tax roll and certifies it to the Tax Collector, who prints and mails the bills. Inside city limits, the rate for city services is set by the five-member Tallahassee City Commission, which the City of Tallahassee lists as the body responsible for setting City tax rates. A house off Thomasville Road inside the city line and a house in unincorporated Leon County near Woodville share the county, school and water district levies; only the city house pays the city millage.

A mill is one dollar of tax for every $1,000 of taxable value. The value comes from the Property Appraiser, whose office sits in the Leon County Government Annex on South Calhoun Street. The Property Appraiser reports 112,526 total parcels on the 2025 certified tax roll, including 76,105 single family residential parcels.

The yearly cycle starts on January 1, the date the Property Appraiser uses to estimate market value for every parcel in Leon County. The Leon County Property Appraiser separates three numbers. Market Value is the estimated value on January 1 from local sales data; Assessed Value is what remains after limits such as the homestead assessment cap or an agricultural classification; Taxable Value is the assessed value minus exemptions, and it is the number the millage rates multiply.

In summer each taxing body in Leon County drafts a budget and a proposed rate. Those proposals go onto the Notice of Proposed Property Taxes, called the TRIM notice for Truth in Millage. For 2026 the Property Appraiser mailed the notices on August 17 to all property owners in Leon County. The notice is not a bill. It lists the values, the proposed rates, an estimate of the tax and, on the back, the dates and places of the public budget hearings held by each taxing authority, which is where an owner can speak on a rate before it is final.

A dispute about value goes to a different place. The Leon County Property Appraiser asks owners to call first; if that does not settle it, a petition can go to the Leon County Value Adjustment Board, and the deadline for the 2026 roll was September 11, 2026. The TRIM notice also lists non-ad valorem assessments, which the Property Appraiser describes as charges for services like solid waste, stormwater or fire protection. Those charges ride on the same bill but are not based on value, so a change in millage does not move them.

Once the rates are adopted in September, the roll goes to the Tax Collector. Bills are mailed on or before November 1 and are due by March 31. Paying early earns a 4% discount if paid in November, 3% in December, 2% in January and 1% in February. Taxes not paid become delinquent on April 1, when interest of 1.5 percent a month and fees are added. The Tax Collector serves walk-in customers at offices on Metropolitan Boulevard, on North Monroe Street in the Lake Jackson area and on South Monroe Street on the Southside.

For FY 2026, which runs October 1, 2025 through September 30, 2026, the City of Tallahassee's millage rate is 4.4072, a decrease of .0128 mills compared to the last fiscal year, according to the city's Budget in Brief. The city says its millage rate of 4.4072 mills is among the lowest of the 20 largest cities in Florida, and that at that rate property tax revenue still rises by $6 million over FY25 because values went up.

That small cut came out of a split vote. At the first FY 2026 budget hearing in September 2025, WFSU reported, most commissioners wanted to keep the prior rate, but holding a rate while values climb requires a supermajority. Commissioners Jeremy Matlow and Jack Porter voted no, which forced the lower figure: WFSU put the difference at a 4.4072 rate or about $881 annually on a $200,000 property, against about $884 at 4.42. The two tied their votes to the running dispute with Leon County over the fire services fee.

The county side has barely moved in a decade. Leon County reported in a June 15, 2026 release that FY 2026 brought no increases in the countywide property tax millage rate for the 14th consecutive year, maintaining a rate of 8.3144 mills, inside a $401.5 million total budget. County budget releases from the FY 2020 cycle show a separate levy beside it: no change in either the Countywide Millage Rate of 8.3144 mills or the 0.5 EMS MSTU, the municipal services taxing unit that funds county ambulance service. Those same years funded the Woodville sewer design to protect Wakulla Springs and ballfields at Daniel B. Chaires Park.

For contrast, the Tallahassee Community Redevelopment Agency recorded a city rate of 4.2 and a Leon County rate of 8.814 for FY 2016, the county figure including 0.500 mills for Emergency Medical Services. The school district and Children's Services Council rates are set by those boards and appear on the same TRIM notice.

The city keeps the smaller share. The FY 2026 Budget in Brief says that for each taxable dollar of property taxes paid in 2026, the City is expected to receive 22 cents. Put in round numbers for a Tallahassee homeowner paying $1,000, the City of Tallahassee receives $220, Leon County receives $450, the School District receives $310 and the Children's Services Council receives $20. In the city's worked example, a house with a $300,000 assessed value and a $50,000 homestead exemption owes $3,018, and the City of Tallahassee receives $661 of it.

Property tax matters most to the city's general fund, which pays for police, parks and roads. The FY26 General Fund budget is $225.9 million, and property taxes are budgeted at $77.7 million, which represents 34.4% of General Fund revenue. The rest leans on transfers from the city's own utilities: the Tallahassee Democrat reported in February 2026 that utility contributions bring in $57.8 million, and that in FY26 public safety spending would exceed property tax revenue by $5.1 million.

Some of the city and county levy is redirected by geography. The Tallahassee CRA is not a taxing entity; its main revenue is tax increment contributions from the City of Tallahassee and Leon County based on the millage rates established by those local governments, collected in the Greater Frenchtown/Southside and Downtown districts. The CRA does not receive any tax increment from Leon County Schools, the Tallahassee Downtown Improvement Authority or the Northwest Florida Water Management District.

The homestead exemption is the largest. The Leon County Property Appraiser states that an owner who lives in the property as a permanent residence on January 1 may qualify, and that it can cut assessed value by up to $51,411 for the 2026 tax year, with an estimated saving of about $800 a year. March 1 is the filing deadline for each tax year. The office's amendment guide breaks the figure into a $25,000 exemption applied to all millages, including school taxes, plus an additional $26,411 applied to non-school millages, so the school levy is figured on a higher taxable value than the city and county levies.

Homestead also brings a constitutional assessment cap: annual assessed value increases for homestead property are limited to 3% or CPI, whichever is less. The cap is why two similar houses in Killearn or Betton Hills can carry very different bills. The Property Appraiser warns that exemptions and that cap do not transfer, so on sale the assessed value resets to market value, a jump new owners see in the New Owners section of the TRIM notice.

Smaller exemptions stack on top. Leon County owners 65 or older under the state income limit may get the Limited Income Senior Exemption, which can reduce assessed value by up to $25,000. A Long-Term Senior Resident Exemption is open to those who also have lived in the home 25 years or more and whose property has a just value under $250,000 when first qualifying. Veterans with a service-connected disability of 10 percent or more may take $5,000 off assessed value, and the Property Appraiser lists further exemptions for widows and widowers, total disability and first responders.

The biggest open question is on the ballot. The Florida Legislature placed Amendment 3 (CS/HJR 1F) before voters at the November 3, 2026 General Election, and the Leon County Property Appraiser summarizes it without taking a side: homestead property would keep a $25,000 exemption applied to school millages, with up to $150,000 beginning January 1, 2027 to non-school millages and up to $250,000 beginning January 1, 2028. Non-homestead property would see its annual assessment cap cut from 10% to 5%. The office notes that the impact on Leon County and the City of Tallahassee will vary with the share of homestead property and whether rates change.

City Hall has already put numbers on the risk. In February 2026 the Tallahassee Democrat reported city agenda materials warning that one 2026 proposal is estimated to reduce city revenues by $23 million to $30 million annually. The same materials said the millage rate of 4.4072 mills will be maintained for the FY27 budget, which the paper noted usually still counts as a tax increase under state law when values rise. The city keeps watch on the Capitol next door for that reason.

Fees can change the bill even when millage does not. The fire services fee feud ended with the city severing its fire agreement with Leon County, and the Democrat reported the county will build its own department after the contract ends Sept. 30, 2028. The same report flagged rising StarMetro costs under the countywide transit agreement, which runs student ridership programs for FSU, FAMU and TCC.

Officeholders named on this page: Property Appraiser Akin Akinyemi; Tax Collector Doris Maloy; Mayor John E. Dailey, Mayor Pro Tem Curtis Richardson and Commissioners Jack Porter, Jeremy Matlow and Dianne Williams-Cox on the City Commission. Last verified: October 9, 2026, on the City of Tallahassee website.