Floridians will consider a massive property tax cut when they go to the polls next month, a proposition local school leaders fear has amped up anti-tax sentiment.
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That in turn makes them nervous that voters on Nov. 3 will be inclined to reject measures to hike local school property taxes that are also on the ballot — though in previous years those local taxes passed easily.
The Lake, Orange and Osceola county school districts are all asking voters to approve tax hikes to raise millions of dollars for public education, money school leaders say is crucial as they weather steep enrollment drops and the accompanying reduction in state per-pupil funding.
“If it does not pass, then we’re in dire straits. We would have significant cuts,” said Orange Superintendent Maria Vazquez.
But asking voters to approve a local tax hike as some of Florida’s Republican leaders urge passage of Amendment 3, which would cut deeply taxes on homesteaded properties, leaves the Central Florida districts in an awkward position.
“There is angst among the districts,” Vazquez said, and worry that “voters are going to get confused.”
Orange County Public Schools has had a one-mill school property tax in place since 2010, and it has been re-approved by voters every four years since.
That one-mill tax — or an extra $1 paid on every $1,000 of assessed value — is projected to generate about $255 million for OCPS this year, representing about 10% of the district’s operating budget. It pays the salaries of hundreds of teachers and helps support sports, arts and other extracurricular programs.
An Oct. 4 poll from St. Pete Polls showed about 55% of Orange County voters supported renewing the district’s one-mill property tax this year. When the millage was last renewed in 2022, 82% of voters chose to approve.
“What you’re seeing is the effect that Amendment 3 is having on our referendum,” said Angie Gallo, a member of the Orange County School Board who will become its chair in late November.
Approved by the Florida Legislature in June, Amendment 3 asks voters to expand homestead exemptions up to $250,000 in the next two years. That would slash property tax bills for many residents.
Lawmakers carved out school districts from the amendment, but local governments and law enforcement have decried it, saying that its passage would lead to deep cuts in crucial public services.
Despite Amendment 3 looming over November’s election, Bill Mathias, chair of the Lake County School Board, said he’s “nervously optimistic” voters will approve his district’s proposed property tax hike.
Lake County Schools already levies a voter-approved, 0.75 mill property tax for school safety, but the district is asking voters to say “yes” to an additional 0.25 hike to raise about $49 million for teacher pay.
Early polling done by the district showed support was in the “low 70s” but Mathias said he still expects it to be a “horse race” that will come down to the wire.
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“People are going to be in a ‘no’ state of mind when it comes to the referendum because they’re going to be in a ‘yes’ state of mind for (Amendment 3), but I just have to believe with all my heart that people recognize how important public education is,” he said.
A common concern among school districts is that voters will be confused, thinking that if they are opposed to Amendment 3, for example, they should also be opposed to all ballot measures, including the local tax, Mathias said.
Some voters Mathias has spoken with also said they thought that because Amendment 3 exempted school property taxes, districts didn’t need to ask for more from them anymore.
In Orange, OCPS has done almost 60 public outreach events about the millage since May — more than in previous renewal years, Vazquez said — in an effort to explain to voters the tax’s purpose.
The School District of Osceola County is asking voters for the first time to approve a one-mill property tax.
The district says its finances are dire, with reserve funds depleted and almost 800 positions eliminated in an effort to stave off crisis brought on by an enrollment drop of thousands of students.
Amendment 3 complicates the messaging in asking voters for more property taxes, Superintendent Mark Shanoff said in a statement. But the district needs the $62.5 million in annual revenues from a one-mill increase, he wrote.
Without it, he said, “there will be positional cuts of critical personnel within the school district, potential changes to how we protect and who is protecting our children and schools, reduced services across the district, and significant reductions in arts programming and athletics in our schools.”
The “market dictated” seeking the new tax in Osceola, Shanoff added, despite Amendment 3.
But school board leaders in Seminole County, which doesn’t have a one-mill school property tax, considered but ultimately didn’t take that step this year.
At a Seminole County County School Board meeting in May, Board Member Kristine Kraus said she didn’t want to rush a school tax to the ballot without polling the community first. The district didn’t have the data to show that voters would support the property tax, she said.
“It would be devastating to have the effort fail,” Kraus added.
A month later, the Florida Legislature approved placing the Amendment 3 on the ballot, giving voters a way to weigh in on an idea that had been discussed by Republican state leaders for months.
Seminole County Public Schools has also dealt with financial challenges. The district lost about 4,000 students in the last two years and has cut almost 250 classroom positions to compensate.
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