{"id":406609,"date":"2026-09-21T22:22:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T22:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/406609\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T22:22:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T22:22:17","slug":"vote-no-on-3-launches-math-ad-calling-amendment-3-a-public-safety-nightmare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/406609\/","title":{"rendered":"Vote No on 3 launches ‘Math’ ad calling Amendment 3 a ‘public safety nightmare’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The political committee opposing Amendment 3 released a 30-second ad Monday arguing the homestead exemption increase would mean fewer deputies, ambulances, and fire trucks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Florida, roughly 60% of property taxes go to public safety. Amendment 3 guts that funding,\u201d the narrator says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe politicians say that\u2019s \u2018tax reform.\u2019 But the math says Amendment 3 is a public safety nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n

The spot, titled \u201cMath<\/a>,\u201d was shared first with Florida Politics.<\/p>\n

Vote No on 3 Florida Inc.<\/a> is chaired by former Leon County Commissioner Bryan Desloge, a Republican. The committee registered with the state in June as Stop Unfair Tax Shifts and has since changed its name.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Florida Sheriffs Association<\/a> released its own ad last week featuring Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, Clay County Sheriff Michelle Cook, and other Sheriffs, who call Amendment 3 \u201cthe wrong way\u201d to cut taxes. The Sheriffs, the Florida State Fraternal Order of Police, and the Florida Professional Firefighters held a news conference<\/a> against the amendment in Lake Mary on Sept. 15.<\/p>\n

Gov. Ron DeSantis has broken with the Sheriffs on the amendment. He said last week<\/a> there is probably room to cut their budgets.<\/p>\n

The measure needs 60% to pass. A St. Pete Polls<\/a> survey conducted Sept. 15-17 for Florida Politics found 45% support, 30% opposed, and 25% undecided. The survey of 913 likely voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s Revenue Estimating Conference projects<\/a> the amendment would cut local non-school property tax revenue by $4.95 billion in fiscal year 2027-28 and $8.78 billion the year after, reaching $11.86 billion a year once fully phased in. The amendment does not include replacement funding.<\/p>\n

DeSantis has said local governments can absorb the cuts, noting that local property tax collections nearly doubled between 2019 and this year, from about $32 billion to about $60 billion. He told an audience<\/a> at the University of Alabama last week that he doesn\u2019t know whether the amendment will reach 60%.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Vote Yes on 3<\/a> committee, set up by the Florida Realtors, reported $18 million raised through Sept. 18 and has paid nearly $3 million to Pat Bainter\u2018s SGS Inc.<\/p>\n

Amendment 3 would raise the homestead exemption for non-school taxes to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028. The General Election is Nov. 3.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Ed. note: This story was drafted with assistance from AI. Editorial judgment, sourcing, and final review were performed by Peter Schorsch and the Florida Politics editorial team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The political committee opposing Amendment 3 released a 30-second ad Monday arguing the homestead exemption increase would mean…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[133243,160648,27210,157243,137023,837,17675,34220,2423,14559,161444,12830,161445,277,68685,412,202,204,203,7382,199,201,200,133242,161446,161447],"class_list":["post-406609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-amendment-3","tag-amendment-3-2026","tag-bob-gualtieri","tag-bryan-desloge","tag-florida-property-tax-amendment","tag-florida-realtors","tag-florida-sheriffs-association","tag-general-election","tag-grady-judd","tag-homestead-exemption","tag-math-ad","tag-michelle-cook","tag-pat-bainter","tag-public-safety","tag-revenue-estimating-conference","tag-ron-desantis","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-pete-polls","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-vote-no-on-3","tag-vote-no-on-3-florida-inc","tag-vote-yes-on-3"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406609","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=406609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}