Tallahassee, Fla. — A Florida State University town hall on Oct. 14 put Amendment 3, the residential property-tax cut on Florida’s November ballot, under hard local scrutiny from Leon County officials and a statewide taxpayer group.
Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil was among eight panelists at the Askew School of Public Administration. He warned that agencies are unlikely to start by cutting deputies and officers; the sharper risk is losing youth mentoring and other prevention work that has helped drive Big Bend crime down.
Former Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp, now with Florida TaxWatch, said he still favors limited government yet labeled Amendment 3 fatally flawed. He argued poorer counties get no shield while they still must fund police, fire and emergency operations.
Kottkamp said deeper property-tax work belongs with the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission that meets next year, not with a rushed ballot measure.
Florida TaxWatch opened a Property Tax Resource Center with county-level projections, millage and levy data and a one-page guide. Chairman David Casey said the center’s job is to show what the amendment does and does not do for homeowners and local governments before November.
A TaxWatch poll with Sachs Media in early August found that about one in three voters who first backed Amendment 3 moved off a firm yes after hearing a constitutional commission can propose reforms as early as 2028. Passage still needs sixty percent statewide support.
Supporters say first-responder spending would be carved out. Critics at the Tallahassee forum answered that the carve-out does not spare the side budgets and prevention programs that keep public safety working day to day.
Section: More Tallahassee FL politics news
