If you keep up with county politics, have a Facebook account, or read Clay News & Views (CN&V), you know there’s a big, ugly brouhaha over Amendment 3 between many of our elected officials and county taxpayers.
I probably don’t need to tell you the details of the amendment, because most everybody’s got a dog in this fight, me included—but the amendment is statewide, and it increases the homestead exemption from $50, 000 to $150,000 the first year, then $250,000 the second year.
Some of Clay County’s elected and appointed officials appear to be working overtime peddling claims nobody can verify, hoping to scare voters straight into the “No” box on Amendment 3.
But with only a few days left until Election Day, there’s hardly time to persuade the county manager to trade in all those assistant county managers for a few fact-checkers to correct the county officials’ fictitious ramblings. So, CN&V will step up.
Recap
CN&V has kept you updated on the different aspects of Amendment 3, but here’s a short recap of what has happened in our state with the amendment.
People are coming to Florida in droves, bringing billions in all sorts of tax money that is going straight into local and state governments’ pockets. The need to house all those new residents is driving home prices up, especially in Clay County. It has also encouraged assessors to raise the value of long-time residents’ homes, too—which increases homeowners’ taxes and also goes straight to spending money for local governments.
Governments’ budgets are bulging, while lots of people are suffering because of high homeowner taxes. So, Governor DeSantis and some of his legislative buddies decided to help us out by giving us a break on our homesteaded property.
Fear Mongering
Our elected officials are spreading the news that, if the amendment passes, our county will face a financial apocalypse.
They tell us they operate a “very lean budget.” The elected officials suggest, and have surrogates posting illegal signs to reinforce the idea, that law enforcement will be “defunded” and Fire Rescue will be cut by 88 positions. They say firefighters are already leaving because of low wages.
Officials are advising that calls for help will go unanswered, sick folks will be transported to hospitals in the back of station wagons, hundreds of county employees will be shown the door, libraries will shutter, parks will become weedy chigger jungles, and animal services will turn into a furry death row.
Then there’s that video—where one of our elected officials says taxpayers who plan to vote “yes” on Amendment 3 probably don’t own property and are probably not smart enough to make decisions.
And finally, officials guaranteed that if 3 is passed, they will recoup the money from the homestead exemption by raising other fees and taxes.
To appease us, they promised, “Ooh, ooh, tax reform can still happen if Amendment 3 doesn’t pass.”
Feel free to roll your eyes, ‘cause none of this is true.
Follow The Money, Not The Finger Wagging
The latest estimates put the loss of property taxes in homestead fees at $31 million. Insiders say it will be less.
CN&V told you in a recent article about how the county is collecting an extra $36 million a year (at least) in new money for building permits. This will easily cover any loss.
Nobody has mentioned Clay’s 2025 published audit. It shows that after the county paid all the bills, set aside a hefty amount of emergency funds, and paid for pork-barrel projects and bureaucratic bloat, the county had $66 million left on the table.
Surplus funds are rare because the hymnal most government folks sing from has the same continuing refrain: We have to spend all our budget monies, so we can get even more next year. But they couldn’t find places to spend Clay’s unexpected windfall fast enough.
Another under-the-radar point: On October 26th, news outlets reported that the most recent Consumer Affairs analysis (2022-2024) showed homeowners’ property tax bills in the Jacksonville metro area—including Clay County—climbed 21.7 percent, even though home values rose 8.1%.
Compared with 100 of the largest metro areas in the United States, our area ranked No. 2 in the nation for rising property taxes relative to home values. Lakeland-Winter Haven, Florida, was first.
It seems like plain good sense would lead officials to do their homework, “follow the money,” and ask why there’s even talk of cutting the very people who keep us safe and keep the county going, when our local government is sitting on $66 million of unspent money, which is growing by the day.
Here's the part where we fact-check the claims:
Clay County will have a financial apocalypse if Amendment 3 passes:
Only 37.5 percent of all properties in Clay County are homesteaded. So losing taxes on homesteaded property will have little effect on the county’s budget, especially with all the new money and increased taxes they have levied.
The county operates on a lean budget:
Upper Management in our county and our municipalities has some of the highest salaries in the state—even in places with more people and more money—and their benefits are amazingly generous.
The commission has signed off on giving lots of free money that benefits few people. In several instances, they gave money to private companies that were supposed to provide service dogs to needy veterans, but owners and executives took the money, bought houses, took their honeys on vacations, and ran for the Jacksonville City Council.
They give millions in tourist development dollars to people and entities that bring no tourist dollars and are already rolling in money, like the Thrasher-Horne Center.
Law enforcement will be defunded; 88 fire rescuers will be terminated; they are low-paid and leaving. Rescue units will be discontinued, and a private company will transport the sick, injured, and dying:
Ballot amendments ask voters what they want and explain how the legislators will make it happen if passed. The language on the ballot:
"Requires counties and municipalities to use property taxes solely for public safety, education and schools, infrastructure, natural resources, bond debt service, retirement benefits for employees, and operations and administration. If approved, it takes effect January 1, 2027.”
The most important word is “REQUIRES.” If Amendment 3 passes, the legislature will pass a bill forcing governments to fund ALL public safety operations, so nobody in law enforcement or fire and rescue services will lose their jobs. Well, unless somebody sobers up and removes all those administrators with huge salaries whose most productive efforts involve picking their noses.
In fact, all first responders with homestead exemptions will actually get a raise with lower homeowner taxes and their regular paychecks.
Hypocritically, Clay’s five upper managers in Fire Rescue, who collect some of the highest salaries in the state, negotiate for the county against fire rescuers to keep their salaries and benefits low. While our fire service people could surely use bigger salaries, their union has outplayed management and gotten decent wages and benefits for Clay’s Fire Rescue since about 2018.
Clay’s fire personnel have an exceptionally high turnover rate. But their anonymous surveys show they are leaving because of poor working conditions, lack of support and respect, and bad decision-making by their upper (nose-picking) management.
County employees will be laid off and terminated across all departments:
Again, because of the legislation that will come if the amendment passes, which will require all “operations and administration” to be funded—plus, the mountains of money the county already has and will be receiving—all employees will keep their jobs, toilettes will be clean, grass mowed, and recreation areas maintained.
Libraries shuttered and hours reduced:
Studies show the digital age with audiobooks, eBooks, and online research has reduced usage and in-person presence at all libraries across the nation. Although Clay’s library system is attempting to introduce social and educational programs for children, teens, and seniors, one local librarian told CN&V that the county’s libraries are sometimes like ghost towns.
Insiders said plans to close one library and reduce morning and evening hours have been in place for some time. County officials, they said, are waiting to see if Amendment 3 passes, so they can blame the closure and reduction on the amendment.
Animal Services will have to reduce staff and start killing animals:
First of all, the county’s Animal Services has never been a no-kill facility. There’s only one no-kill facility in the county: the Safe Animal Shelter of Orange Park on CR220, located right before you get to the bridge that took years to rebuild. It’s private, mostly run by volunteers, operates largely on donations and, by comparison, is a nicer, cleaner, and kinder facility than any in the county.
Clay has spent a fortune to build the large Animal Services center on CR 220 beside the railroad tracks. Again, they’ve got plenty of money for staffing and will have volunteers to walk dogs around the acres of green space and help out with other tasks. Hopefully things will be better for our furry and not-so-furry friends, but Clay’s Animal Services will still euthanize animals.
Clay County folks who are in favor of Amendment 3 are not smart and don’t own property:
When CN&V posted the official’s video, lots of folks who said they were voting “yes” on 3 advised the official to check his own records, which would show they do actually own property. And well, they said they are smart enough to vote “No” when he comes up for re-election.
The county will raise taxes and fees for other services to make up the difference:
We’ve already had a taste of that threat. Insiders say the Storm Water Fee (Tax), which will not benefit most of the people who will be taxed for it, was a warm-up slap in the face from officials to show us what will happen if we vote for Amendment 3. This debacle appears to have woken up a lot of people in our county.
We thought we elected officials who would stand watch for us. Instead, we discovered the watchmen weren’t watching. As the saying goes, “They were busy rearranging the deck chairs,” along with the facts, “while the ship was sinking.”If the fear mongers and factually challenged manage to convince folks to vote down Amendment 3, plans are already in the works to clean the county’s house; not the kind of cleaning that involves mops and brooms.
Prayers and good luck to all us hardworking taxpayers that Amendment 3 passes.
May the scare tactics fail, the truth prevail,
Common sense hail,
And may the good people of our county and state,
Finally get a tax break.
Next local election slogan - your services are no longer required.
Thank you for a levelheaded analysis of the situation. One question- is there a method established to recall county commissioners? This may be helpful if the commission’s response to padding Amendment 3 is to start increasing or creating other levies.