PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 Largo city officials are taking a closer look at the potential impacts of Florida\u2019s proposed property tax Amendment 3 and asking for the public to weigh in.<\/p>\n
City leaders are giving residents the chance to learn more about potential impacts from people on all sides of the issue.<\/p>\n
Former Senator Jeff Brandes and State Representative Benny Jacques are scheduled to present facts both for and against Amendment 3.<\/p>\n
Largo City Manager John Curp also is expected to attend and outline the potential financial impact, including an estimated $15-million reduction in the city\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n
From budget cuts of 10 to 20 percent for first responders, to potential cuts to parks and city services, Largo city leaders have already floated some of the ways it would need to trim its budget if the amendment passes.<\/p>\n
Brandes has been a critic of raising the homestead exemption for Florida homeowners. He said the biggest impacts would be felt in smaller communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of contingency plans going on, but for some of these cities, they\u2019re going to have a difficult time surviving,\u201d Brandes said. \u201cCities like Kenneth City, Gulfport, many of your beach communities may not be here in five to 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jacques said he believes the forum should give voters information from both sides of the amendment debate.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Jacques said Amendment 3 would provide financial relief to homeowners struggling to make ends meet after years of inflation.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmendment 3 will deliver much-needed relief to our fixed-income seniors and help address affordability in our community,\u201d Jacques said. \u201cVoters will decide this question in November, and they deserve fairly presented facts and transparency from their government officials.\u201d<\/p>\n
Largo officials have said the speakers will not be allowed to campaign for or against the amendment during the city-sponsored event. Instead, the focus is expected to be on the factual effects of the proposal.<\/p>\n
Amendment 3 would change Florida\u2019s property tax protections, reducing taxes for many homeowners while reducing property tax revenue available to local governments.<\/p>\n
The potential impact on public safety funding has become a major point of contention.<\/p>\n
The Florida Sheriffs Association, Fraternal Order of Police and Fire Chiefs Association have opposed Amendment 3, arguing it could threaten local funding for public safety, particularly in medium-sized and smaller communities.<\/p>\n
The amendment\u2019s ballot language was also revised after a Leon County judge ruled portions of the original wording were misleading. The revised language removed advocacy-oriented wording from the ballot summary.<\/p>\n
Amendment 3 will go before Florida voters in the November 2026 general election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 Largo city officials are taking a closer look at the potential impacts of Florida\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[274,28,2635,2287,115,99,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,278,835],"class_list":["post-395037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-app-top-stories","tag-florida","tag-jason-lanning","tag-local-politics","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395037","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=395037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}