OVIEDO, Fla. \u2014 Oviedo city leaders are reviewing possible budget cuts, fee increases and service reductions as Florida voters prepare to decide Amendment 3 in November, a property tax measure that city officials say could reduce local revenue by millions of dollars.<\/p>\n
Deputy Mayor Natalie Teuchert said nothing has been decided, but the city is preparing for potential financial impacts if the amendment passes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe property appraiser estimated that year one, we lose a little bit over $5 million, and the second year as that increase goes from $150,000 exemption for a homeowner to $250,000, it would go up to about $9.2 million,\u201d Teuchert said.<\/p>\n
Teuchert said Oviedo is looking at multiple options, including reducing services, increasing fees or eliminating some city-sponsored events. Those events could include Oktoberfest, holiday celebrations, Juneteenth and Independence Day.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re making a point to say, hey, if this were to pass, those are really our three options,\u201d Teuchert said. \u201cWe can cut services, we can cut some services, increase some fees, or we can keep all our services and drastically increase fees.\u201d<\/p>\n
The measure could affect property tax revenue for cities across Florida. Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida, said counties and cities rely heavily on property taxes.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor counties and cities, realistically, they rely very heavily on property taxes,\u201d Jewett said. \u201cI mean, it’s the number one source of tax revenues for local governments, not just in Florida but around the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jewett said when cities face significant revenue losses, leaders have to evaluate which services are required, which are priorities and which could be reduced or eliminated.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore we start cutting critical public safety, critical infrastructure and that sort of thing, we need to make sure that we have cut to the bone,\u201d Jewett said. \u201cAnything else that might be considered an add on, or maybe something that’s a nice to have but not a have to have.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oviedo is holding additional information sessions for residents and business owners to learn more and ask questions. The next session is scheduled for Sept. 30 and will be held virtually.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OVIEDO, Fla. \u2014 Oviedo city leaders are reviewing possible budget cuts, fee increases and service reductions as Florida…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[6507,115,1335,139,141,140],"class_list":["post-405667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-ashley-engle","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405667","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=405667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}