The organization start to campaigning agains the ballot innovative comes as the Seminole County Sheriff warns of layoffs if property tax reforms pass
Seminole County Dennis Lemma (R) was blunt Tuesday afternoon.
“It would be devastating,” he told the Seminole County Board of Commissioners about a possible budget reduction due to Amendment Three. “It is the biggest threat to the office of sheriff.”
Lemma is talking about the ballot initiative, which would lower property taxes by increasing the homestead exemption to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028. The amendment would also reduce the annual cap on assessment increases for non-homestead properties from 10% to 5%. If the amendment passes, Lemma said he’ll have to remove around 300 positions, both vacant and filled.
“Before eliminating positions, we would make a difficult reductions throughout the organization,” Lemma said. “We would freeze hiring. We would eliminate vacant positions that are not necessary to make mandatory responsibilities. We would rely on normal attrition whenever responsible, consolidate functions, reduce operating expenses, delay replacing of vehicles, equipment and technology.”
The sheriff is one of the handful of people featured in ads by the Florida Sheriff’s Association urging people to vote against the ballot measure. The nonprofit organization hosted a press conference on the topic on Tuesday after launching an ad campaign against the ballot measure.
“It rips out Florida’s biggest source of public safety funding with no plan to replace it,” said the ad while making claims that it will create more crime, fewer deputies, and delays in 911 calls.