Street Economics

Marianna, Florida

HJR 1 Homestead-Exemption Tax-Base Exposure

Jackson County . 2025 final assessment roll

Snapshot

The Marianna Read

Marianna fits the Institutional / Government Town archetype: a large share of value and land is held by hospitals, government facilities, or other institutional and public property, much of it tax-exempt, which shapes the base before the amendment even applies.

At full $250,000 phase-in in 2028, HJR 1 exposure sits at 17.9%, with a 14.9% step at the 2027 threshold.

Exposure is variable in this archetype because the taxable residential remainder drives the number, but the institutional and government anchors are non-homestead and stable, providing structural insulation that keeps the headline figure in the low range.

Marianna ranks 273 of 404 cities by exposure statewide, meaning most Florida cities face a heavier hit.

Of 2,122 residential housing units, 46.2% are owner-occupied, 9.4% are owned by out-of-state owners, and 44.4% are non-homestead but Florida-owned.

That 44.4% Florida-owned non-homestead share is the dominant rental story here: this is largely a local Florida-owned rental market, not an absentee out-of-state ownership situation.

The out-of-state share at 9.4% is well below the threshold that would signal a second-home or investor-driven dynamic.

Land-use composition

Share of taxable value by category, Marianna, 2025 roll:

Two figures in this table stand out. Industrial shows 87.9% of its value out-of-state owned across only 25 parcels, meaning a small number of high-value industrial properties are held by owners with non-Florida mailing addresses.

Agricultural similarly shows 48.6% of its value out-of-state owned.

These are parcel-based measures within each category and reflect ownership concentration in small buckets; they do not change the headline exposure figure but are worth tracking as the base evolves.

What the exposure band means

Low exposure. The base is already substantially non-homestead. The amendment is a manageable headwind. Focus on protecting the diversified base that provides the insulation.

Looking ahead

Neither of the following changes the exposure figures above; both shape how Marianna grows its base after the amendment takes effect.

First, beginning January 1, 2027, the annual assessment-increase cap on non-homestead property drops from 10% to 5%, covering commercial and industrial real property and small residential rentals of nine units or fewer.

Because a capped property’s assessed value can rise only 5% per year, the main path to growing taxable value in these categories is transactions: a sale or change of control resets the property to market value. Transaction velocity matters more to non-homestead base growth under the tighter cap than it did before.

Second, new Florida residents who did not maintain a Florida permanent residence as of December 31, 2026 phase into the larger exemption over five years rather than receiving it immediately.

This cannot be read from the roll, so all exposure figures here assume full application of the exemption. Near-term exposure could run slightly lower than modeled in places with many recent arrivals still inside their five-year window.

Where the opportunity is

These recommendations are based solely on the tax roll’s land-use composition. They do not account for whether local land development regulations and zoning permit the uses described, whether there is local obstruction, or the political dynamics that typically decide what actually gets approved. This is a starting point for a conversation, not a development plan.

• Marianna’s institutional and government anchors — at 18.3% and 7.1% of just value respectively — are mostly tax-exempt and will not carry the taxable base on their own.
• The fiscal opportunity is the private, taxable activity those anchors generate, and capturing that activity is the central strategic question.
• The commercial sector at 13.4% of value is the most direct lever: growing medical-office space, university-adjacent retail, and service commercial along existing corridors and arterial frontage around the institutional anchors converts anchor-generated demand into taxable base.
• The 25 industrial parcels representing 10.0% of value are a thin but notable presence; recruiting private taxable spin-off activity — research-adjacent uses, suppliers, clinics — on available land near those anchors deepens the industrial and commercial ring without relying on exempt expansion.
• Multifamily rental at 5.9% of value across 50 parcels is a relatively small share; adding rental housing near institutional employment centers grows a category the amendment does not touch and captures workforce demand the anchors already create.
• The Other/Vacant category at 2.7% of value across 921 parcels represents land that could be directed toward taxable mixed-use rather than allowed to absorb more exempt institutional footprint.

Watch-out: an expanding tax-exempt institution can erode the taxable base faster than the amendment does.

The exempt share of Marianna’s roll is already substantial, and tracking it over time is as important as tracking the homestead exposure figure.

Every acre that shifts from private taxable use to institutional exempt use is a permanent subtraction from the base, not a temporary headwind.

Source and scope

All figures are drawn from the Florida Department of Revenue 2025 final assessment roll, the most recent certified roll in the state’s possession.

The roll is used here as a structural proxy for tax-base composition, not as a dollar forecast for any specific budget year.

HJR 1 / CS-HJR 1F is on the November 2026 ballot; the 2026 roll is the assessment roll in place when voters decide.

If the amendment passes, the first roll affected is the 2027 roll at the $150,000 step, followed by the 2028 roll at the full $250,000 phase-in.

When the 2026 and later rolls are certified, the analysis re-runs on the new data.

Ownership shares are measured on a residential housing-unit basis.

The out-of-state ownership figure is a mailing-address proxy: it identifies owners whose address on the roll shows a non-Florida state or country.

It undercounts true outside ownership because an out-of-state owner using an in-state LLC mailing address counts as Florida-owned, and it does not prove where any individual owner actually lives.

This read is a land-use-composition starting point, not a full fiscal, economic, or legal plan.

Place: Marianna, Florida