In a leafy Raleigh, North Carolina, subdivision, modest split-level houses and raised ranches built in the early 1970s are razed to make way for more luxurious homes on the same lots.
The buyers then flip them for a massive profit, driving up assessed values and local tax bills for the entire neighborhood.
Retired business owner Ed Jones, 91, who moved to the rapidly growing North Carolina community in 1950, said that once-affordable homes for young families and senior citizens in his neighborhood have been wiped out as the lack of affordable U.S. housing approaches critical mass.
“We’re sandwiched between all of these million-dollar homes,” Jones told The Epoch Times. “With the revaluation coming, I’m sure we’re going to have to fight hard. We want to stay here as long as we can.”
Similar complaints have been heard in Florida, where Tampa Bay-area realtor Vincent Arcuri estimates that his average customer is 41 years old, compared with 28 when he began in 1991.
As home values keep rising in the Southeast and across the nation, so does the tax revenue that local governments and school districts collect.
Lawmakers and citizens’ groups, fed up with annual increases that exceed inflation, have introduced property tax limitation ballot measures in seven states in the Nov. 3 elections.
“The anger is legitimate,” said Adam Michel, director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. “Property taxes aren’t adjusting to the rest of the system. Something has to give.”
Here’s a look at some 2026 ballot initiatives.
North Carolina
Annual caps would likely be based on inflation and population growth trends across communities, said Brian Balfour, vice president of the John Locke Foundation policy center in North Carolina.
From 2023–2024, property taxes made up 44 percent of county-level revenues and 22 percent of municipal-level (cities and towns) revenues, according to the John Locke Foundation. The money covers local services such as public safety and education.
While there doesn’t appear to be strong opposition to this ballot measure, the North Carolina Budget and Tax Center policy organization cautions that tax caps make local governments more reliant on state funding, fees, and fines.
User charges for specific services such as water or trash collection can’t fund other local functions. When property tax revenues decrease, local leaders are forced to cut hours at public libraries and community pools and other programs that are supposed to benefit the entire community.
“If lawmakers are serious about affordability, they should choose targeted relief, not blunt caps that shift costs and deepen inequities,” the organization’s website states.
Florida
Amendment 3, which requires approval from 60 percent of voters, would exempt primary residences from property taxes on up to $150,000 of assessed valuation in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028, with further amounts based on annual inflation rates after 2029.
Residents who buy a home in the Sunshine State after Dec. 31, 2026, must live there for five years before they can qualify for the tax break.
It also reduces the cap on annual property tax hikes on non-homestead parcels, including rental and commercial properties, to 5 percent annually from 10 percent. The legislation doesn’t pertain to local school taxes.
Florida voters will also decide on a separate amendment that would exempt certain personal property on agricultural lands from taxes.
Wyoming
Initiative 1 would cut property tax bills on primary residences in half.
Homeowners are eligible for the 50 percent assessment exemption if they lived in their current dwelling for at least six months and in the state for at least one year.
The initiative is expected to reduce local government tax revenues by about $92.6 million in 2028 and $95.9 million in 2029.
A proponent, Frederick Harrison, an attorney and former state legislator, told The Epoch Times that Wyoming already collects $2 billion annually from oil, gas, coal, and mineral extractions. Additionally, the planned $17 billion Google data center will contribute millions of dollars more to property tax coffers in the nation’s least-populated state.
He said Laramie County alone has a $147 million fund balance that’s growing by up to $37 million annually.
“What is missing is not money,” he said. “What is missing is a government that has ever been forced to live within its means.”
The main opponents in this fight are public community colleges and law enforcement agencies partially funded by local property taxes. Harrison said public employees paid by state and local tax dollars make up about 20 percent of Wyoming’s workforce.
“Everyone who is against Initiative 1 has a dog in the fight,” he said.
Check out the full story to find out what’s going on in other states.
—Aaron Gifford
BOOKMARKS
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