Bless its little heart. You know that Florida property tax constitutional amendment on the Nov. 3 ballot? The one promising homeowners miraculous tax savings? The one Gov. Ron DeSantis and his Republican sycophants touted far and wide back in late spring? The poor thing’s an orphan abandoned by its guardians, slung like an overripe sack of fish on the trash heap.
DeSantis is refusing to campaign for his signature project because it doesn’t, he says, look like his baby. The Florida Chamber of Commerce is keeping its distance, preferring that the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission tackle the issue next year. Its sponsors are lukewarm, preferring to hide behind “let the voters decide.”
They all ignored the warnings from former Republican state Sen. Jeff Brandes: “Florida is about to perform open-heart surgery on its tax system amid a housing market already under stress. That should make everyone a little nervous.” Both he and Jeff Kottkamp — a former lieutenant governor and legislator who now leads Florida TaxWatch — warn the amendment would turn municipalities into beggars at the Statehouse, virtually eliminating local control of how government spends money.
Three lawsuits have been filed against Amendment 3. One is by the nonprofit Save Our Voters, one by former South Miami Mayor Philip Stoddard and the third by Brandes and former Democratic lawmaker Al Lawson. They all say the ballot language is biased, misleading and written to persuade voters rather than neutrally explain the amendment.
Oh, you’ll still get to vote on it. But if it passes and things go sideways as it’s implemented, guess who’s going to shoulder the blame. Not the folks in Tallahassee. You.
They’re already setting the stage to let voters take the fall. Dontcha love this from Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds? He supports Amendment 3 and says whether it passes or not “we are going to implement the will of the people of Florida.”
Back in June when Florida legislators and the governor celebrated putting the amendment on the ballot, House Speaker Daniel Perez fawned over DeSantis’ leadership and tossed the rest to voters. “We’re entrusting our voters. And if the voters decide in November by less than 60% that this is what they wanted or not to do, then we trust that that was the right decision.”
Oh, yeah, they’re entrusting us all right. If 60 percent of us say “yes,” then it’ll be our fault if Monroe County, Key West and other Keys cities come up short on revenue and cut services — like free Trauma Star medical flights to Miami. If we say “no,” then they’re going to be prissy scolds: “We tried to help you and you just spit in our faces. You must love renting your house from your local government.”
Amendment 3: And then came the property tax oopsies
In June, those Tallahassee Home Rule haters spent days in special session piddling around with the plan, DeSantis’ signature legislative initiative. The gov wanted two things: More control over local government and a juicy political headline about cutting property taxes. He got both with Amendment 3 and the slew of related legislation that goes with it. Joy abounded in news releases, social media posts and Republican happy hours.
Then came the oopsies.
Legal challenges (see above). The chamber folks, champions of pretty much whatever the governor wants, unusually silent (see above). Diehard Republican local elected officials around the state, including the Keys and Key West, scrambling to mitigate the damage to home rule and revenue — without ticking off the governor. Neither the right nor the left national media was sympathetic.
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board joined the anti-amendment choir saying it’s a “shame” DeSantis is “using his final months in office to push a poorly designed measure on the November ballot that would put his state on the slippery slope of a progressive property tax regime.” The editorial said the redistribution of the burden is guaranteed, since “shrinking the tax base in this way will inevitably drive localities to shift the burden to other forms of property.”
A New York Times story on July 10 summed it up this way: “But a proposed constitutional amendment that emerged from those efforts has been met with considerable pushback, most notably from some of his fellow Republicans, including local officials faced with billions in lost revenue that would force them to cut services. Now, even Mr. DeSantis is backing away from the proposal, which is set to appear on the November ballot. The backlash reflects the real-world budgetary challenges that come with one of the Republican Party’s core beliefs — that taxes should be lower.”
Amendment 3 is a sinking Republican showboat that would devastate local control, staggeringly reduce local services and force increased dependence on escalating local sales taxes and fees. Voting “no” will get us a wagging finger from Tallahassee’s prissy scolds and force them to do property tax reductions the right way. But voting “yes”? That’ll get us an ironclad, constitutionally guaranteed disaster. And it appears even the governor and Amendment 3’s sponsors agree.
It’d be a real profile in courage for DeSantis and the legislators to call a “what were we thinking?” special session to rescind it. A girl can dream, right?
Informative article, thank you. I read on a social media post that there was a person complaining about a Sheriff’s office using a helicopter to locate a missing person, the person called it wasteful spending. This is the type of people that we are dealing with when it comes to the property tax amendment. They are thinking only of themselves and not the rest of the community. Are we going to need a credit card handy when calling 911?
Thank you, Mark, and well said. Too often we don’t realize how important those services are — until, of course, we need them personally. That person would likely have been grateful for the helicopter if it were their loved one missing.