As voters head to the polls, local leaders are raising concerns about what Amendment 3 could mean for Florida\u2019s smaller cities. If voters approve it, the Vice Mayor of Wilton Manors says the impact on his residents would be devastating.<\/p>\n
A bigger homestead exemption would put more money in homeowners\u2019 pockets. City leaders say it comes at a cost.<\/p>\n
Wilton Manors Vice Mayor Chris Caputo says that as a homeowner, he understands the appeal.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I very much see both sides of the equation,\u201d Caputo said.<\/p>\n
But he is also familiar with his city\u2019s budget. If Amendment 3 passes in November, it would give homeowners a larger homestead exemption while cutting local government budgets.<\/p>\n
Wilton Manors has a $26 million budget. Under Amendment 3, the city would lose about $3.3 million. That may not sound like much, but for a smaller city, it is a big deal.<\/p>\n
Caputo says the cuts would force tough choices that residents would feel directly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are my neighbors who elected me to represent them, who I\u2019m going to have to say I\u2019m sorry we can\u2019t pick up your garbage twice a week, I\u2019m sorry we can\u2019t have Wicked Manors this year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it forces us to have to raise taxes on everyone we can, raise every fee we can,\u201d Caputo added.<\/p>\n
He warned that other cities could fare even worse.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are other cities who are even more heavily depending on homestead properties who can see as much as 50% cut to their budget. That\u2019s just bankruptcy,\u201d Caputo said.<\/p>\n
Caputo says he reached out to the local Realtors association, hoping to find out where the replacement money would come from. The statewide Realtors association has spent millions promoting Amendment 3, arguing it will make homeownership more affordable and keep money in homeowners\u2019 pockets.<\/p>\n
Caputo showed NBC 6 an email from the local association\u2019s chief of advocacy. It said the group had not studied the amendment\u2019s effect on individual cities: \u201c\u2026our local association has not conducted municipality-specific fiscal impact projections for Amendment 3.\u201d<\/p>\n
The same message said the group\u2019s focus is on the significant growth in government spending and property tax revenues since 2019.<\/p>\n
Caputo was not satisfied with that answer.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo let me get this clear, you spent 21 million dollars convincing residents this was the responsible way to save money but you didn\u2019t spend a dollar to figure out how it would actually impact the city,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In a previous interview with NBC 6, representatives of Florida Realtors said the amendment is about affordability.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe Amendment 3 is an opportunity that we haven\u2019t had as voters in a very, very long time to \u202frein in some of the rising costs for families,\u201d said Fernando Arencibia, 2026 Secretary of Florida Realtors.<\/p>\n
The Florida Sheriffs Association has publicly opposed the amendment.<\/p>\n
NBC 6 also spoke with voters about the proposal. Some say the savings would be welcome.<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially as seniors, we need to cut down on expenses. Everything is so high and every little bit helps,\u201d said voter Maria Phillis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As voters head to the polls, local leaders are raising concerns about what Amendment 3 could mean for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,49572],"class_list":["post-443056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-wilton-manors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443056","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=443056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}