Editorial Standards \u24d8<\/a><\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\tIf Florida voters approve the property tax reduction amendment drawn by Republican leadership, the existing $50,000 homestead exemption will increase to $150,000 next year, and to $250,000 in 2028. \u201cEverybody wants to pay less taxes, right? But when you pay less taxes, on the local level, you can expect lesser services from the community,\u201d said Michael Davey in an interview with WESH 2. The former Key Biscayne mayor is one of two plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed by attorney Jamie Cole. The other plaintiff is Thomas Campenni, former Stuart mayor. Under the group name “Save Our Voters From Misleading Ballot language,” the lawsuit claims the property tax reduction initiative measure, officially HJR 1-F, and passed during a special session of the Legislature this month, is \u201cbiased and thus, does not fairly inform the voter\u201d because that \u201cballot statement is factually inaccurate and misleading.\u201d The lawsuit is asking a circuit judge in Leon County to order a rewrite of the ballot language. For example, it says passing the measure will “ensure funding for core services” will be protected. Opponents say that language is “deceitful.” The plaintiffs say voters need to know that a yes vote will carve nearly $ 14 billion out of city and county budgets in its first two years; $5 billion in fiscal year 2027-28 and $8.8 billion in 2028-29. While school property taxes would be spared, money for police and fire protection, public parks and recreation, garbage pickup and more would be drained. Critics of the measure say the immediate result will be higher local taxes and fees, or dramatic reductions in non-public safety services. Davey adds, \u201cThis is a power grab. This is an attempt by Tallahassee to centralize power, in a small group of individuals up there, to the detriment of local municipal governments and municipal residents.\u201d The judge could order Attorney General James Uthmeier to rewrite the ballot language, which is spelled out in a Florida law passed 2011, giving the attorney general the ability to adjust wording in initiatives.Cole added, \u201cThis is an important issue. There’s going to be a campaign for it, a campaign against it, and the voters are going to make the decision but when they go to decide, they need to be given a fair ballot question.\u201d \u201cWe need to get a resolution on this pretty quickly,\u201d said Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis during a morning news conference in Winter Haven on Friday. He said voters deserve to have quick decisions by the courts, adding, \u201cSo this is not something that can really drag out. We’re going to go, I think we’ll win. But if we don’t then we’ll have to go and do a quick appeal.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
If Florida voters approve the property tax reduction amendment drawn by Republican leadership, the existing $50,000 homestead exemption will increase to $150,000 next year, and to $250,000 in 2028. <\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody wants to pay less taxes, right? But when you pay less taxes, on the local level, you can expect lesser services from the community,\u201d said Michael Davey in an interview with WESH 2.<\/p>\n
The former Key Biscayne mayor is one of two plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed by attorney Jamie Cole. The other plaintiff is Thomas Campenni, former Stuart mayor.<\/p>\n
Under the group name “Save Our Voters From Misleading Ballot language,” the lawsuit claims the property tax reduction initiative measure, officially HJR 1-F, and passed during a special session of the Legislature this month, is \u201cbiased and thus, does not fairly inform the voter\u201d because that \u201cballot statement is factually inaccurate and misleading.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lawsuit is asking a circuit judge in Leon County to order a rewrite of the ballot language. <\/p>\n
For example, it says passing the measure will “ensure funding for core services” will be protected. <\/p>\n
Opponents say that language is “deceitful.”<\/p>\n
The plaintiffs say voters need to know that a yes vote will carve nearly $ 14 billion out of city and county budgets in its first two years; $5 billion in fiscal year 2027-28 and $8.8 billion in 2028-29.<\/p>\n
While school property taxes would be spared, money for police and fire protection, public parks and recreation, garbage pickup and more would be drained. <\/p>\n
Critics of the measure say the immediate result will be higher local taxes and fees, or dramatic reductions in non-public safety services.<\/p>\n
Davey adds, \u201cThis is a power grab. This is an attempt by Tallahassee to centralize power, in a small group of individuals up there, to the detriment of local municipal governments and municipal residents.\u201d<\/p>\n
The judge could order Attorney General James Uthmeier to rewrite the ballot language, which is spelled out in a Florida law passed 2011, giving the attorney general the ability to adjust wording in initiatives.<\/p>\n
Cole added, \u201cThis is an important issue. There’s going to be a campaign for it, a campaign against it, and the voters are going to make the decision but when they go to decide, they need to be given a fair ballot question.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to get a resolution on this pretty quickly,\u201d said Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis during a morning news conference in Winter Haven on Friday. He said voters deserve to have quick decisions by the courts, adding, \u201cSo this is not something that can really drag out. We’re going to go, I think we’ll win. But if we don’t then we’ll have to go and do a quick appeal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HEAT, THAT AND MORE ALL COMING UP IN YOUR FULL SEVEN-DAY FORECAST. DECEITFUL AND MISLEADING ARE SOME OF…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[31877,129194,97420,7920,76973,28,30,29,47145,833,129197,45392,129195,41318,129196,90731,28396,164],"class_list":["post-309770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-attorney-general-james-uthmeier","tag-ballot-language","tag-circuit-judge","tag-decision","tag-fire-protection","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-florida-voter","tag-lawsuit","tag-local-municipal-government","tag-measure","tag-michael-davey","tag-plaintiff","tag-power-grab","tag-property-tax-amendment","tag-public-park","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309770","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=309770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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