{"id":352413,"date":"2026-07-25T20:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T20:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/352413\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T20:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T20:52:12","slug":"police-group-opposes-florida-property-tax-amendment-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/352413\/","title":{"rendered":"Police group opposes Florida property tax amendment | Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Florida chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police<\/a> is the latest public safety organization to oppose Amendment 3, the proposed constitutional amendment designed to provide property tax relief to homeowners but which critics allege could radically reduce revenues for local government essential services, including public safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Florida State Fraternal Order of Police believes Florida taxpayers deserve meaningful property tax relief,\u201d the organization said in a written statement Friday. \u201cWe understand the financial pressures facing homeowners, and we support thoughtful, responsible reforms that provide relief while protecting the essential services our communities depend on.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, we oppose the current Amendment 3 because it creates far too much uncertainty about how local governments would continue to fund law enforcement, fire rescue, emergency medical services, and other critical public safety functions. Public safety should never become collateral damage with uncertain fiscal consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

If approved, the proposed amendment would increase homestead exemptions for Floridians who own primary residences by the end of this year to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028. Further increases would be tied to the Consumer Price Index. The amendment would cap assessment increases on other property to 5% a year.<\/p>\n

Last week, the Florida Fire Chiefs\u2019 Association<\/a> became the first major statewide public safety organization to formally oppose Amendment 3, saying providing tax relief and reliable emergency services \u201care not mutually exclusive, but both require responsible long-term planning.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to state economists, the proposed amendment would reduce local government property tax revenues by an estimated $5 billion in its first year and $11.8 billion per year after five years.<\/p>\n

ISLANDER NEWS LOCAL CONTEXT<\/p>\n

What Amendment 3 could mean for Key Biscayne<\/p>\n

Amendment 3 would significantly increase Florida\u2019s homestead exemption, reducing the property tax revenue available to local governments. A preliminary estimate provided to the Village of Key Biscayne projected<\/a> a potential revenue loss of:<\/p>\n

$800,000\u00a0in the first year<\/p>\n

$1.6 million\u00a0in the second year<\/p>\n

The projected losses raise questions about how the Village would fund public safety, infrastructure and other municipal services.<\/p>\n

Read Islander News\u2019 earlier report<\/a> on Amendment 3 and its potential impact on Key Biscayne.<\/p>\n

The Florida Democratic Party announced its opposition to the measure earlier this week, while the Republican Party of Florida has yet to take a public stance.<\/p>\n

Gov. Ron DeSantis campaigned on providing major property tax reduction for homestead property owners over the past year, but didn\u2019t unveil his own plan until less than a week before he called the Florida Legislature to convene for a special session in June.<\/p>\n

After it was approved with some changes to his plan, he has said that, while he will vote yes on the amendment, he is not as enthused about it and will not head any political group championing the measure. That\u2019s a noticeable difference from 2024, when he formed a political committee and actively campaigned against proposed constitutional amendments that would have legalized recreational cannabis and enshrined abortion rights into the Florida Constitution.<\/p>\n

This report first appeared on the website of the Florida Phoenix<\/a>, a nonprofit news organization dedicated to coverage of state government and politics from Tallahassee. It has been edited by adding the Islander News local context box.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Florida chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police is the latest public safety organization to oppose Amendment…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[133243,144114,28,144116,30,29,11490,117916,14559,123977,144115,126,123979,144117,124017,8193,68255,412,144113],"class_list":["post-352413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-amendment-3","tag-amendment-3-impact-on-key-biscayne","tag-florida","tag-florida-fire-chiefs-association","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-florida-property-taxes","tag-fraternal-order-of-police","tag-homestead-exemption","tag-homestead-exemption-in-florida","tag-homestead-exemption-in-key-biscayne","tag-key-biscayne","tag-key-biscayne-property-taxes","tag-key-biscayne-taxes","tag-local-government-revenue","tag-property-tax-relief","tag-public-safety-funding","tag-ron-desantis","tag-which-groups-oppose-amendment-3"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352413","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=352413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}