Public safety officials from rural Florida counties said residents should expect to see longer response times, drops in services and the consolidation of small police and fire departments across the state if voters pass Amendment 3, the major property tax cut proposal.
“Crime is down because we work hard to keep crime down. Amendment 3 is going to take funding, that means it’s going to take deputies off the street,” Gadsden County Sheriff Morris Young told reporters Thursday in Tallahassee.
Amendment 3, which will appear before voters on the Nov. 3 ballot, would increase the $50,000 homestead property tax exemption to $150,000 in 2027, and then to $250,000 in 2028. The measure requires 60 percent support from voters to become law.
Groups of firefighters, sheriffs, police and emergency medical technicians have joined local government officials to oppose Amendment 3, saying the property tax cut will be too drastic for rural counties to absorb without cutting essential services.
In Gulf County, Sheriff Mike Harrison said for the past 20 years the city of Wewahitchka, which has a population of just over 2,000 people, pays the county’s one deputy’s salary for law enforcement services.
“Amendment 3, if it was to pass, I don’t see where they stay afloat anyway. But if they do, they’re not going to be able to afford law enforcement services,” Harrison said.
As for the county, by law the sheriff must provide security for the Gulf County courthouse, including bailiffs, Harrison said. But the county said it would potentially cut the two to three positions they pay to the sheriff’s office if Amendment 3 passes, putting more pressure on his budget.
“You’re responding to shots fired at 2 a.m. You want to know backup’s coming, not backup is 45 minutes away,” Harrison said.
Nick Gradia, an Escambia County firefighter and leader with the Florida Professional Firefighters trade group, said his county helped neighboring Santa Rosa County after Hurricane Isaias made landfall as a Category 3 storm in the Panhandle in early October.
According to Gradia, Santa Rosa County has several small independent fire districts which did not have the resources to handle the response of the storms on their own.
“If everybody has to tighten their belts, what gets cut? Now, do we lose the ability for these larger teams to come in and assist? And if that goes away and the system that’s barely in place locally can’t keep up with its own demand, what happens?” Gradia said.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose office developed the proposal for the property tax cut, the Republican Party of Florida and the Florida Realtors have all spoken out in favor of Amendment 3. DeSantis has toured the state for more than a year speaking about the need to cut taxes for homestead owners.
“Our people need and deserve to have more of their money stay in their pockets instead of sending more of it to local government!” DeSantis said in a post on X.
But top Republican legislators have come out against the measure, including Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, and Sen. Kathleen Passidomo, a Naples Republican and Albritton’s predecessor. Both lawmakers, though, voted to put the measure on the ballot.
“As a native of Florida’s heartland, our rural communities are near and dear to my heart. It’s who I am,” Albritton said in a released statement earlier this month. “Amendment 3 would eliminate up to 30 percent of resources for Florida’s rural counties, gutting essential support for law enforcement, emergency response services and critical infrastructure.”
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This article appears in Oct. 29 – Nov. 04, 2026.
