Amendment 3 brings property tax relief for homeowners, leaves local governments to fill a big budget

Amendment 3 means property tax relief for many Florida homeowners, but it also leaves a big hole in local budgets. Now, every city and county has to decide how to fill it. You might save on property taxes but could end up paying somewhere else.

State economists estimate local governments could lose up to $12 billion a year, with nothing built in to replace that funding. Everything from firefighters to parks and roads could be on the chopping block.

The head of Jacksonville’s firefighters union says the hit is hard to overstate.

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“Do you have to lay people off? Do you not order equipment? I mean, there’s so much that goes into this,” said Kelly Dobson, president of the Jacksonville Association of Firefighters.

Cutting spending is one option. Jacksonville City Councilman Matt Carlucci feels confident city leaders can balance the budget without raising other taxes and fees.

“We have council members that had all these ideas that we would cut $100 million out of our budget this year... suddenly they realize, it’s not that easy,” Carlucci said.

“We’re going to probably have less staffing, reduced services, and we’re going to have stretched resources. Parks which get mowed once a week now, they’re not going to get mowed once a week anymore,” Carlucci said.

Still, local governments have options: raise property tax rates, ask voters for a higher sales tax or add fees.

Last year, Bradford County commissioners passed a $167-a-year “fire fee” over a room full of angry residents.

“It’s one fast food meal a month, and I understand, I get it. Listen,” a speaker at the Bradford meeting said. “You do go out to eat more than four times a month, and you swap your drink that you get for water, that’s literally $13 that you just saved per month, but we all have habits that we can certainly draw back on.”

No public vote is needed for a fee like that, and Amendment 3 doesn’t cap fees like that.

There could be another hidden cost.

“If those budgets are affected and they don’t have the manpower to respond... property insurance could potentially go up,” Dobson said.

Carlucci says the city has time to work through it, but other cities and counties could make different choices. The changes take effect Jan. 1.

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