JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Opposition is mounting against Amendment 3, the property tax phaseout proposal set to appear on the November ballot.<\/p>\n
Vote No On 3, 3 Degrees Florida and Floridians for Shared Prosperity are all recently formed political committees with a shared goal: Convince voters to reject the property tax phaseout amendment this November.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think people are clearly realizing that these cuts are going to directly impact citizens across the communities across the state,\u201d said Vote No On 3 spokesperson Edie Ousley.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n Vote No On 3 was the first of the opposition campaigns to form.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also the only campaign to see any donations at this point, sitting at just over $800.<\/p>\n But Ousley expects that fundraising to skyrocket in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd we are excited to share and help educate about what Amendment 3 is, how it\u2019s actually going to harm people, that many people are going to pay more while the wealthy pay less,\u201d Ousley said.<\/p>\n A recent poll from Sachs Media found Amendment 3 with 64 percent, which is just above the 60 percent needed to pass.<\/p>\n But the opposition recently got a free gift, with Governor Ron DeSantis saying he won\u2019t be fronting any major efforts to support the proposal.<\/p>\n \u201cCause while I support it, I do think it\u2019s not all that I was hoping to see,\u201d said DeSantis at a recent news conference.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, it\u2019s very significant that Governor DeSantis has said that he\u2019s not gonna spend any of his political capital trying to get this passed because it really was his idea in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n UCF Political Science Professor Dr. Aubrey Jewett explained it often doesn\u2019t take much to chip away at support for ballot measures.<\/p>\n \u201cYou only need to look at his [DeSantis\u2019] efforts two years ago to kill two amendments. He spent a lot of time and even questionably a lot of state money to try to fight those amendments and in the end it worked,\u201d Jewett said.<\/p>\n And without the Governor or a well-funded support campaign to counter the opposition it may have a hard time hitting that magic 60 percent threshold.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, it\u2019s very significant that Governor DeSantis has said that he\u2019s not gonna spend any of his political capital trying to get this passed because it really was his idea in the first place,\u201d Jewett said.<\/p>\n In addition to the trio of opposition campaigns, Amendment 3 is also facing a trio of lawsuits, the outcome of which will determine the words you see on your ballot explaining the property tax phaseout proposal this November.<\/p>\n Lawsuits challenge property tax phaseout amendment <\/p>\n Former State Senator Jeff Brandes joined with former Congressman Al Lawson to file the most recent of the three legal challenges contesting the ballot language approved by the legislature.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t fairly describe the Amendment itself; it leads itself to political conclusions,\u201d Brandes said.<\/p>\n He cited examples like the ballot language\u2019s claim that the amendment protects small businesses and ensures funding for core services like police and fire.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re already seeing cities having conversations about shifting and getting rid of their police departments and moving to county sheriffs. We\u2019re already seeing county fire departments looking to assume cities\u2019 fire departments,\u201d Brandes said.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n If successful, a court could order the Florida Attorney General to rewrite the ballot language in a neutral way.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a factual matter, the ballot summary is not accurate,\u201d said Jewett. \u201dI mean, I don\u2019t know what the judges will decide.\u201d<\/p>\n Jewett argued that at the end of the day, it\u2019s important that voters fully understand the possible benefits and downsides.<\/p>\n \u201cThat it\u2019s not just like a free tax cut that has no impact. It will have a very big impact. That doesn\u2019t mean it won\u2019t pass; maybe people still decide it\u2019s worth it, but it either is going to cost services, or it\u2019s going to shift taxes to somebody else,\u201d Jewett said.<\/p>\n Brandes said he expects all three pending lawsuits to be consolidated into a single challenge.<\/p>\n The first hearing for his suit is set for later this month, and a final ruling will likely need to come down in August to ensure there would be time to rewrite the language before ballots are printed.<\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Opposition is mounting against Amendment 3, the property tax phaseout proposal set to appear on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[982,137808,6277,95050,137810,18687,28,137809,969,116,118,117,970,65767,137807,634,137806,40610,6176,7219],"class_list":["post-334303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action_news","tag-al_lawson","tag-attorney_general","tag-aubrey_jewitt","tag-brandis","tag-dr","tag-florida","tag-florida_department_of_state","tag-jack","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jake_stoan","tag-jake_stuffan","tag-jeff_brandis","tag-local","tag-save_our_homes_from_excessive_property_taxes","tag-senator","tag-south_bank","tag-ucf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334303","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=334303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}