Florida voters passed Amendment 3 last week, effectively slashing property taxes for homeowners and billions of dollars of revenue for local governments.
Now, cities and counties are grappling with million-dollar cuts and new revenue streams.
Local governments in Central Florida are facing about $10 billion in lost revenue over the next five years, according to Florida Tax Watch.
In Brevard County, it’s half a billion dollars. County Commission Chair Thad Altman says that could mean cutting mosquito control, agricultural programs and parks.
“I think we may have to build more prisons if we substantially cut Parks and [Recreation],” Altman said. “ Because who are you hurting? Your young people, your athletic programs, your sporting programs. ...I hope we can continue to fund them, but that may be impossible unless we don't come up with some alternative revenue source.”
A ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach
Brevard has one of the lowest property tax rates in the state. It has cut rates by 20% over the past five years.
Though that aligns it philosophically with the authors of Amendment 3, in practice, it will be a liability, Altman said.
“We're starting at a really low [revenue] base. We're already cut to the bone. We already have challenges providing certain services, such as emergency medical and fire. We really are tight, and so we're at a disadvantage because of that. We're not starting from a point of having much to cut, but we're going to have to be cut,” Altman said.
He said Amendment 3 “is going to change the face of local government, and it's going to create some real challenging problems and issues because it was a one-size-fits-all type of approach.”
In Winter Park, Mayor Sheilla DeCiccio is frustrated that state lawmakers superseded local governments when writing Amendment 3 — without offering funding to help offset the revenue losses.
“Who do you call when the swings break? Do you call Tallahassee when the playground swings are broken? When there's a pot hole, do you think they're going to come and fix it?” DeCiccio said. “I mean, all the things that you rely on when you live in a city or town, it's local. And has Tallahassee said, ‘Hey, we're going to help you fund this, we're going to help do this?’”
As one example, she said, Winter Park has been helping to pay for school resource officers that have been mandated under Florida law since 2019. But it may not be able to help out under Amendment 3.
A stress test
During this year’s legislative session, Florida lawmakers passed a law requiring local governments to draft hypothetical budgets that cut 10% of spending each year, starting in 2027. That came as Florida CFO Blaise Ingoglia was conducting a statewide campaign purporting to expose waste and largesse in local government budgets.
Rather than wait, the city of Winter Park decided to create that 90% budget alongside its regular budget this year, in the event that Amendment 3 passed.
Esteban Santis, a researcher with the nonprofit Florida Policy Institute, said on Monday that he wasn’t aware of any other local governments in Florida that drafted a 90% budget this year. (The Florida Policy Institute gave money to campaign against Amendment 3 this year.)
That hypothetical 90% budget is illuminating, because it actually represents a bigger cut to the city budget than it expects to feel under Amendment 3. Once the full $250,000 homestead exemption kicks in at the start of 2028, Winter Park expects to lose about $6.7 million out of its annual $94 million general fund budget — only about 7% of the budget.
That proposed budget closed a fire station, limited pool and library hours and ended funding for local museums.
DeCiccio said some of those cuts are drastic and wouldn’t be staff’s preference when deciding how to make cuts in next year’s budget.
New revenues
Other communities are already contemplating new revenues to offset the cost reductions.
At Monday’s Sanford City Commission work session, commissioners agreed to proceed with a plan to possibly levy a new fee for administering firefighting services along with budget cuts.
City Commissioner Claudia Thomas chafed at the unilateral nature of Amendment 3.
“I am proud of the citizens of Seminole County and the city of Sanford because we are one of the few counties in the state who did not vote to pass this amendment, so I feel terrible that we are in a position where we're all going to have to suffer because of the vote that the state overall made,” Thomas said. “But I just want to acknowledge that there are quite a few people in this city and in this county who were rational when they saw what this amendment was going to mean and made a decision.”
But whether it actually implements a fire fee has yet to be decided. The body agreed to study the potential costs and benefits of a fire fee before making a decision and adopting a budget.
