{"id":408926,"date":"2026-09-24T03:55:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T03:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/408926\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T03:55:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T03:55:13","slug":"is-jacksonville-prepared-for-the-200m-shortfall-if-amendment-3-passes-short-answer-no","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/408926\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Jacksonville prepared for the $200M shortfall if Amendment 3 passes? Short answer, no."},"content":{"rendered":"

This story was originally published by The Florida Trib<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As voters are set to decide on a major property tax reduction<\/a> on the November ballot that would decimate Jacksonville\u2019s budget \u2014 as well as the budgets of city and county governments across Florida \u2014\u00a0the fiscal conservatives who control the City Council\u2019s influential Finance Committee have made big claims about the need to cut.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not in reality here with $200 million. There\u2019s a lot more than would have to be cut,\u201d council member Ron Salem said in August, referring to next year\u2019s projected deficit. \u201cI want to prepare the next council as best I can for a potential catastrophe that could occur.\u201d<\/p>\n

So far, the efforts of the Finance Committee have amounted to $30 million in cuts from the mayor\u2019s $2 billion proposed general fund budget, most of which likely won\u2019t amount to actual savings and falls many millions short of next year\u2019s potential revenue shortfall.<\/p>\n

Jacksonville is projected to face a $200 million hit next year and another $100 million the following fiscal year, City Council Auditor Phillip Peterson told the Trib, if the major property tax elimination on the November ballot, known as Amendment 3, passes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

City Council President Nick Howland told the Florida Times-Union<\/a> he supports Amendment 3 to bring tax relief to homeowners in Jacksonville, advocating for trimming the city budget ahead of the potential deficit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Howland\u2019s council could trim only $30 million, or just more than 1% of the entire budget. Carving $200 million out of next year\u2019s budget \u2014 nearly 10% \u2014 would prove far more painful and degrade Jacksonville\u2019s quality of life services, public safety and infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome have advocated for deeper cuts. Some are upset that we\u2019ve cut at all. We think we\u2019ve done the responsible thing,\u201d Howland told the Florida Trib about the discrepancy.<\/p>\n

More than $23 million in proposed cuts could end up partially funding public safety capital projects, according to legislation filed by the Finance Committee chair<\/a>. The other $6 million \u2014 cut from grants to local nonprofits, money for the cultural council, an eviction-assistance program and telehealth services \u2014 will be cut only if the property tax reduction is approved<\/a> by 60% of voters.<\/p>\n

In an interview, council member Jimmy Peluso said this year\u2019s budget does not need to reflect the potential $200 million deficit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s necessary for us to operate under the assumption that 60% of the electorate are gonna do something that will impact our budget next year,\u201d Peluso said. \u201cI\u2019m not here to assume things may or may not happen in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Council members who spoke to the Trib said the city\u2019s workforce would likely be affected by layoffs and by not increasing the police and fire workforce for years.<\/p>\n

The controversial proposal to increase the homestead exemption, for all nonschool taxes, to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028 faced initial pushback in court<\/a> but will ultimately remain on the ballot<\/a>. The amendment has attracted bipartisan pushback from local and state officials, who fear the cuts could cut not just into quality-of-life services like parks and libraries but also public-safety budgets, including for police and fire protection.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no world in which Amendment 3 passes in the city of Jacksonville is in a good place,\u201d Peluso said. \u201cYou\u2019re looking at game over for a whole bunch of quality of life issues that we care a lot about, as well as public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

City Council member Will Lahnen, who chairs the Finance Committee, filed legislation to use $23 million in savings cut from Deegan\u2019s budget for three major public safety capital improvement projects \u2014 $14 million for tenant and leasehold improvements at the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office new headquarters at the Florida Blue building, $10 million for JSO\u2019s warehouse consolidation and $2 million to purchase a carbon dioxide removal system for the fire department.<\/p>\n

In all, the council approved almost all of Deegan\u2019s budget, Lahnen said, modifying about 1%.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re living in a fantasy land,\u201d council member Rory Diamond said about the committee\u2019s limited cuts to the budget this year. \u201cThey\u2019re living in fantasy land whether or not Amendment 3 passes because the people in Jacksonville are not gonna stand for seeing their taxes go up and up and up every year anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was originally published by The Florida Trib. As voters are set to decide on a major…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-408926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408926","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=408926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}