All over Florida, the governments are coming out against Amendment 3, the one that will cut property taxes on homestead property taxes that aren’t for the school board. In its final form, the property taxes on a person’s primary residence that aren’t going to schools will be cut to zero for most people. That will translate to about a 15% cut in local and county tax revenues. The remainder of city and county taxes in Florida come from commercial property, second homes, and other sources.
That isn’t a large cut, when you consider that some counties are collecting 1.5 to 2 times as much in property taxes as they were a decade ago. So instead of collecting that, they will only get 1.3 to 1.7 as much as they were collecting. Oh, the humanity.
The tactic they are choosing is to say that services everyone wants will be cut, because of course they will. Everyone (or most everyone) wants police, fire, and schools funded. So they are rolling out threats of cutting those services. They are also already raising taxes in preparation for it passing. For example, the Osceola county school board is saying this cut will affect them (even though the law isn’t touching school taxes), so they are putting a millage rate increase on the ballot. They want to increase school taxes in Osceola county by $62 million. The school budget for that county is $2 billion, so this represents a 3% increase in the school’s budget, but an 18.8% increase in the school board’s current 5.3 mil tax. Then they go to the old “safety” excuse:
State law mandates that schools have at least one armed security officer during the school day. Osceola County schools are currently staffed by school resource officers through a cost-sharing partnership between the district and local municipalities — including the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, St. Cloud Police Department and Kissimmee Police Department. Shanoff said that arrangement could be jeopardized if local governments face their own budget constraints, especially as voters statewide consider Amendment 3, which would overhaul state property taxes.
“If the municipalities run short of funds, the responsibility of staffing armed security at schools comes back to the school district, and we will have to go with private armed security, different than having actual law enforcement on campus,” Shanoff said.
That’s not what the law says. There is a provision to allow teachers to be armed, which wouldn’t cost a fraction of what it costs to maintain police on campus, but schools won’t do it even though they all receive grant money from the state to implement it. Osceola county is saving money by contracting the Guardian program to a private security company for armed, uniformed security guards, and using these security guards to replace armed police officers. Since the guards make significantly less money than cops, the school district is likely profiting from the program.
Osceola county governments are flush with cash. Kissimmee fire department recently gave their fire department 15% more time off by adding a fourth shift, but with the same pay. Just in February, that same fire department bought a new heavy rescue truck to replace the old one. That new truck cost more than a million dollars. Saint Cloud is spending $12.5 million on knocking down an old fire station to replace it with a new one, and another $10 million on another new station. St Cloud only has 108,000 residents, but has a $210 million annual budget, or more than $2000 a year for every man, woman, and child.
The local and city governments are flush with cash, and I am betting there is a lot of money being tossed at “social media influencers” to Astroturf support to prevent the gravy train from being cut.
I am deeply in favor of Amendment 3.
7 Comments
Joe Blow · August 6, 2026 at 5:54 am
They could cut SNAP benefits to cover the funding? Make work-for-benefits programs in city departments to offset adjustments. Forego any scheduled pay raises for elected officials? LOL, I could go on, but I’m preaching to the choir.
We are NOT voting our way out of this.
It is going to get worse before it gets better.
They do not work for you and me.
Yes they want us all dead.
When will people wake up?
ghostsniper · August 6, 2026 at 8:27 am
When silly people stop inventing stupid reasons every 2 years to choose criminals to rule over them you might start to see some light at the end of the tunnel.
There is no shortage of nitwits out there that retardedly believe choosing the lesser of 2 evils is a good thing.
Being an entrenched member of society (mob rule in all things) has permanently clouded their brains. They sanction the criminals and sell all of us down the river of doom.
As bad as politicians are, the votists are even worse. Without votists, (potential) politicians are no threat at all. Some people, I suppose, love to be lied to.
Steve S6 · August 6, 2026 at 10:01 am
My response will always be: give me your open books and a box of red pens. I’ll fix it.
By the way you should all be fired (or hung) for malfeasance.
Tom Hyland · August 6, 2026 at 10:40 am
The majority of people are no different than a dog on leash. They feel comfort and security when they know who the boss is and that leash alleviates the confusion of choosing where to go.
“My political opinions lean more and more to Anarchy. The most improper job of any man, even saints; who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on; is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity.” – J R R Tolkien
Vlad the non-Impaler · August 6, 2026 at 12:44 pm
A million for a heavy rescue is the norm.
Kissimmee is apparently funded well. I wish my old department could have given us extra days off! With the same pay? Sign me up!
Instead they have gone to mandatory OT and everybody gets to take a big bite of a shit sammy.
Divemedic · August 7, 2026 at 7:04 am
It’s not that the truck itself is expensive, it’s that the department continues to spend money like there is no end to it.
– The department has 4 stations- one was rebuilt last year, a second is being rebuilt this year, and a fifth fire station is being added next year. The fire stations are all being rebuilt or refurbished. Station 3 is the oldest, and was built about 30 years ago. Station 2 was previously the oldest, but the new one is being built now. 4 was rebuilt last year, station 1 was built about 18 years ago, and station 5 will be built next year.
– The department went from three shifts to four, which caused them to hire that fourth shift AND give the other three shifts an hourly raise, so they could make the same money will working only 7 days a month instead of 10.
– They operate four engines, a heavy rescue, and a tower truck. They buy a new one every year, meaning each piece of apparatus is in service for 6 years before being rotated to reserve status for six years, then being replaced.
If you know anything about fire departments, you know that getting a new engine every six years is a crazy short rotation. Getting all new fire stations, getting all new trucks, getting a new, shorter work schedule, all reinforce my point- these cities are flush with cash because tax receipts have been skyrocketing.
More, More, More – Area Ocho · August 7, 2026 at 3:42 am
[…] not a day goes by without another locality telling us how they are broke and plan to raise taxes. Yesterday, I told you about the seemingly coordinated social media campaign against Amendment 3. I am going to keep beating this drum, because it’s […]