It’s a tax shift, not a cut

As a quick reminder of what Amendment 3 entails, the forum began with the explanation that, if passed by 60 percent of Florida voters, the ballot measure would raise the homestead exemption to $150,000 for 2027 and to $250,000 in 2028. It would also lower the cap on non-homesteaded property to 5 percent from 10 percent. These exemptions, however, would apply only to people residing in Florida as of 2026. Those arriving after Dec. 31, 2026, would need to wait five years to be eligible for the new exemptions.

Officials were asked straight up, Is there any way this is not a tax shift? Four to one, they all said No.

Apopka’s Mayor Nesta said, “It depends,” then quickly qualified that by adding,“It goes back to what services do you want cut? Do you want services just taken away? Or do you still want those services to be had and just add certain fees on a different side? It depends on what your specific residents choose and want.”

“That was great,” Shadrix said of Nesta's response. “The answer in Ocoee is still no.”

Tallahassee will call the shots

Much was said during the evening about the usurpation of home rule. Windermere’s Smith framed this as a quality-of-life issue:  “You live in a community, you want to make rules for your community and make sure it’s the way that you want.” He said that Tallahassee keeps peeling away municipalities’ decision-making authority. “The more they do that, the more it takes away from us, trying to provide you the quality of life and the level of service that you’re used to.”

With Amendment 3, Smith warned, residents across West Orange would have to  “lower your expectations when it comes to that quality of life and that level of service that you’re used to.”

Shadrix was more blunt: “It’s a dangerous place to be when the Legislature is telling us what we can spend funds on and what we can’t.” After the event, he had even harsher words, describing the ballot measure to VoxPopuli as the “weaponization of property tax for political reasons.”

Shadrix said they would all have to re-evaluate qualify-of-life projects since those items, like parks and recreation, would no longer be considered core services. Those, he said, will be “some of the first things to have cuts to them.”

Williams' concern was that “there's no foreseeable end in sight" to how Tallahassee could hamstring local government if Amendment 3 passes.

“The last sentence there: Other expenditures may be approved by county officers or municipal governing bodies unless prohibited by general law. That sets the stage for the Legislature, whoever's in power at that time, to make additional laws that may further impact the services that you are providing. So that creates a bigger concern long term, at least from my perspective, and I'm sure from everybody else's perspective."

Capital projects, repairs may be postponed

In response to a question about what budgets may have looked like had Amendment 3 been in place this year, Shadrix said repairs and maintenance, like right-of-way mowing, street resurfacing and sidewalk repair, would be spread out on a longer schedule.

“Our commission’s given me very clear direction that we want to fix all of our sidewalks so we’ve slightly increased, for three years straight, our sidewalk and street resurfacing budget. But had it passed this year, those are all things we’d be looking at and having to go case by case.”

There will be fees for everything

Williams said Winter Garden was considering a range of revenue sources such as downtown parking fees and assessments for street lighting and fire services. Last year, angry residents forced the city to back down from its deeply unpopular fire fee, and the millage was raised instead to close a $2 million budget gap. That may not be an option following Amendment 3. Program and user fees for facility and field rentals would also likely increase, he said.

Ocoee is doing likewise. Mike Rumer, the assistant city manager, told VoxPopui after the forum the city is exploring any fees that can be approved by the commission and will stand up to Florida statute.

Doing business will become more costly

During this budget season, Ocoee moved its Building Department budget out of its General Fund into its own enterprise fund. That means it will function more like its own mini-business as the city looks for other revenue sources apart from property taxes. And the costs to do business — building permit fees, zoning review fees, inspection fees — will likely go up, Shadrix said.

“There’s going to be quite a bit of negative business impacts relating to this [Amendment 3] if it passes,” Shadrix said. He predicted a "huge surge in non-ad valorem fees" that would be passed on to tenants renting space for their businesses.

" I own a strip center, and I've got five tenants in it, and I've got a clause in my lease with all of them that they have to pay increases. I'm not speaking for everyone, but if I'm a smart business guy, I'm gonna have that clause in all my leases that as my fees increase, yours increase," he told VoxPopuli after the forum.

Because cities don’t collect as much tax as people think

Williams said one of the biggest misperceptions is that the bottom line of a resident’s tax bill is what the city collects from them.

“I don’t think they realize that there’s multiple different taxing entities that make up that tax bill,” he said. “I think we [Winter Garden] collect about 29 cents for every tax dollar that’s spent.  The majority of the services that we are providing within the city of Winter Garden are done by us, and there's really not a perceived value for the services that we're paying for the county or any other entities that may be appearing on that tax bill."

Shadrix said the same, noting that 27 cents of Ocoee residents’ tax dollars are paid to Orange County. “We’re providing a full-service community here, and you haven’t questioned what your 27 cents to Orange County goes to … You haven’t questioned why the school board isn’t funding 100 percent of the school resource officers or working with us more closely on some of those things.”

Officials do want tax reform

When tax reform was floated about a year and a half ago, Shadrix said a few of the municipalities — Ocoee, Apopka and Winter Garden — produced a white paper and sent it to Tallahassee to the House Select Committee on Tax Reform. He emphasized, they were not against tax reform.

“We wanted to see it done the right way,” said Shadrix. “This [Amendment 3] feels like ripping a Band-Aid off an artery.”

“ I support paying less taxes, but there's a consequence to that,” said Williams. “I think the real losing proposition in this whole thing is if this is approved, it gets enshrined in the Constitution. All these negative effects potentially happen. You're going to have to require another Constitutional amendment to unwind this, which I don't know what that even looks like.”