TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – A former Leon County commissioner is now leading the charge against a ballot measure that would cut property taxes in Florida.
Bryan Desloge is chairing “Vote No on 3,” a new campaign hoping to convince voters that changes promising to reduce property taxes will likely result in tax hikes elsewhere and deep cuts in services.
“The governor is touting this as a property tax reduction, but it’s not coming out of his budget; it’s coming out of local governments’ budgets. Could we improve? Absolutely, there are cases around the state where counties could run a little tighter; this is not a little tighter. This is doing surgery with an axe,” Desloge said. “This is catastrophic.”
Desloge served on the Leon County Commission from 2006 to 2020 and went on to lead both the Florida Association of Counties and the National Association of Counties.
He calls Amendment 3 a shift, not a reduction, in taxes with the potential to impact critical services.
“Everybody would love to have their taxes go lower, but the problem here is how we fund most the services we provide and local government is who provides 80% of the services most of us take for granted – roads and parks and libraries, the water, the power – these are all services in most cases that your city or county provides,” Desloge said.
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The campaign kicked off this week just as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation that would implement the property tax changes if voters pass Amendment 3 in November.
“Do you care about affordability or not? If you care about affordability, what better tool in the toolbox do we have than to do this for our homestead exempt property owners?” DeSantis said at Wednesday’s bill signing in Bradenton.
“It’ll be meaningful particularly for people that are more working-class and middle-class homeowners, and they’re going to see a big cut,” he said.
Amendment 3 is designed to lower property taxes by increasing Florida’s homestead exemption. It would raise the homestead exemption to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028.
The proposed Constitutional amendment will appear on the ballot this November and would need to be approved by 60% of voters to pass.
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