{"id":2532,"date":"2025-10-14T14:35:20","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T14:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/2532\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T14:35:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T14:35:20","slug":"orlando-police-union-seeks-more-money-for-special-teams-as-property-tax-reform-looms-wftv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/2532\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando police union seeks more money for special teams as property tax reform looms \u2013 WFTV"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla \u2014 As Florida cities like Orlando brace for potential changes in property tax laws, the Orlando police union is heading back to the negotiating table, this time with a scaled-down pay proposal in hand.<\/p>\n

After initially pushing for a larger increase, the union is now settling for a 4% raise each year for the next three years.<\/p>\n

However, uncertainty looms as cities wait to see how state-level property tax reform efforts might impact local budgets. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis emphasized that tax relief must now come from the local level.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody is being pinched by higher taxes at the state level. We\u2019ve cut taxes dramatically, but we\u2019re running out of taxes to cut in Florida at the state level. That\u2019s why I really want to get these property taxes and deal with those at the local level because I think that is the best way that we can provide relief for people throughout the state of Florida,\u201d DeSantis said.<\/p>\n

But property tax reform isn\u2019t the only challenge on the table. A significant sticking point remains in that union leaders say they are separated by $82,000. That money would go for proposed special team pay, or extra compensation for officers who serve on specialized units like crisis negotiation teams or those who respond to large-scale protests.<\/p>\n

The union argues these officers should receive similar pay to SWAT members during callouts.<\/p>\n

Yet city negotiators remained firm. A representative from the Fraternal Order of Police Orlando Lodge #25 said, \u201cI don\u2019t have the authority to approve the type of money that is involved with all of that put together.\u201d <\/p>\n

At the last meeting, the city made it clear that if the union wants special team pay included, they\u2019ll have to take a smaller base raise in year one saving $1 million.<\/p>\n

The union, however, wasn\u2019t willing to shave off an entire percentage point from the base pay raise, resulting in no final agreement, at least not yet. Both sides will be back at the table Thursday.<\/p>\n

Do you have a story for WFTV\u2019s 9 Investigators?<\/p>\n

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\u00a92025 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla \u2014 As Florida cities like Orlando brace for potential changes in property tax laws, the Orlando…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1060,3094,1061,634,115,139,141,140,1046,3092,3093,3095,1045],"class_list":["post-2532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-channel_9","tag-doge","tag-eyewitness","tag-local","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-orlando_police","tag-orlando_police_union","tag-shannon_butler","tag-swat","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}