OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — Osceola County leaders are warning that a proposed constitutional amendment aimed at lowering property taxes could also force the county to make millions of dollars in budget cuts and that could mean potentially affecting school resource officer funding.
Amendment 3 will appear on Florida’s November ballot and would make major changes to property taxes.
If approved by voters, the amendment would increase the homestead exemption for taxes other than school district taxes to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028. The exemption would then be adjusted for inflation.
The amendment would also reduce the annual cap on increases in the assessed value of non-homestead properties from 10% to 5%.
The changes would mean tax savings for qualifying property owners, but they would also reduce property tax revenue available to counties and cities.
And Osceola County leaders say that could force them to make difficult choices about what gets funded and that includes school resource officers.
“Make no mistake that public safety is and has always been our board’s paramount priority,” Osceola County Commission Chairman Brandon Arrington said. “But Amendment 3 will undoubtedly reduce the dollars available to fund even that.”
The warning comes just weeks after the county agreed to give the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office a 12% increase in its budget.
Arrington said county leaders are already looking at where they could make cuts if Amendment 3 passes.
“We’ve already started looking at what we can cut, and we’ve set aside about $75 million in cuts,” Arrington said. “But those do include school resource officer for our school district.”
Arrington said the county could also be forced to cut about $8.6 million from EMS services, which could potentially mean closing a fire station and mosquito spraying.
The possibility of cutting funding for school resource officers raises questions because of the county’s recent decision to increase the sheriff’s budget.
Osceola County currently pays about 30% of the cost for 52 school resource officers, with the Sheriff’s Office paying the remainder.
During an interview, Arrington was asked why the county would consider cutting money for school resource officers after agreeing to give the sheriff more money than county leaders initially proposed.
“But, chairman, you gave the sheriff more money than you originally wanted to, but now you say we might have to cut when it comes to school resource officers,” the question began. “But you gave him extra money and he doesn’t have enough now to do that?”
Arrington said county officials had initially asked constitutional officers, including the sheriff, to limit their budget increases to 6%.
“All of our constitutional officers came in at a 6% increase, which is what the county went as well,” Arrington said. “We asked our sheriffs to do that.”
But the Sheriff’s Office requested more, saying he needed 17%.
County leaders eventually agreed to a roughly 12% increase after the sheriff indicated he could take the budget dispute to the state.
Florida sheriffs can appeal county budget decisions to the state, creating the possibility that the county could ultimately be required to provide additional funding.
County leaders decided reaching an agreement with the sheriff was less of a financial risk than allowing the dispute to move forward.
But even that additional money may not be guaranteed.
Arrington said the county could revisit the sheriff’s 12% increase if Amendment 3 passes and the county needs to find additional savings.
“If Amendment Three passes, we might be looking at clawing back that 12% increase in order to make sure we have a balanced budget for our county,” Arrington said.
The sheriff says he will find a way to fund all the SROs if the county has to cut their funding for the staffing.
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