TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Seminole County Dennis Lemma (R) was blunt Tuesday afternoon.
“It would be devastating,” he told the Seminole County Board of Commissioners about a possible budget reduction due to Amendment Three. “It is the biggest threat to the office of sheriff.”
Lemma is talking about the ballot initiative, which would lower property taxes by increasing the homestead exemption to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028. The amendment would also reduce the annual cap on assessment increases for non-homestead properties from 10% to 5%. If the amendment passes, Lemma said he’ll have to remove around 300 positions, both vacant and filled.
“Before eliminating positions, we would make a difficult reductions throughout the organization,” Lemma said. “We would freeze hiring. We would eliminate vacant positions that are not necessary to make mandatory responsibilities. We would rely on normal attrition whenever responsible, consolidate functions, reduce operating expenses, delay replacing of vehicles, equipment and technology.”
The sheriff is one of the handful of people featured in ads by the Florida Sheriff’s Association urging people to vote against the ballot measure. The nonprofit organization hosted a press conference on the topic on Tuesday after launching an ad campaign against the ballot measure.
“It rips out Florida’s biggest source of public safety funding with no plan to replace it,” said the ad while making claims that it will create more crime, fewer deputies, and delays in 911 calls.
State Representative Toby Overdorf (R-Palm City), who help to write the amendment with the Governor’s Office, said his goal was to make life more affordable for Floridians. He said Sheriff’s Offices are caught in the middle of these “bad decisions” by local government.
“I’m not saying that the sheriff’s offices have fat to trim,” Rep. Overdorf. “What I am saying is that local government has a lot of programs that may not be need to be done.”
Florida Realtors, the statewide organization for 47 local and regional Realtor associations or boards in Florida, said it’s supporting the measure. Margy Grant, the group’s Chief Executive Officer, said she believes the measure will help homeowners save money during an inflationary period.
“Amendment three is a partial solution to the affordability problem,” Grant said. “Right now homeowners are struggling. Families are struggling.”
In response to the change, some local municipalities are changing how they tax the public by raising service fees or increasing the millage rate. Overdorf said he believes local governments would have continued to increase fees regardless of reforms to property taxes.
“The local governments are taking more and more money and doing it by fees rather than doing it by property taxes,” he said. “And what I’m seeing is we have the ability to control at least the property tax side of this equation, and if local government chooses to, they’re going to continue to increase the fees.”
Overdorf said if the fee increases continue, voters could vote out local elected officials. Those voters will have a chance to vote on his amendment in November, which needs 60% to pass.
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