The Florida Sheriff's Association recently announced their opposition to Amendment 3, the property tax cut referendum on November's ballot that would increase Florida's non-school homestead exemption to $250,000 over the next two years.
We reached out to Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw for his thoughts. He says some smaller local municipalities in our area may not have a tax base.
"It's going to put a lot of cities in jeopardy in a lot of places, not just here, across the state. And it's going to make the sheriffs stop programs that really are really good for the community."
He cites a food distribution event PBSO does every weekend across the county.
"Those are deputies out there doing it, directing traffic. We did 3,000 people last weekend in cars. Deputies have to be there directing traffic. It's personnel costs."
Sheriff Bradshaw declined to say whether he thinks the amendment would result in deputies being laid off but points this out...
"85 percent of your budget is personnel...everybody's budget. So if budgets have to be cut, it's going to be people."
He says that Legislators should instead be coming up with other ways to cut taxes for residents.
"If they wanted to reduce that a little bit, I can see giving them a break. But to go as high as they're going to where some cities will have zero ad valorem taxes, that's a problem."
The Sheriff's budget for the new fiscal year that starts in October is estimated at $1.1 billion.
But County Commissioners are considering making the agency a special taxing district, which would lower the amount of taxes that residents of cities that have their own law enforcement would pay for PBSO.
More with Sheriff Bradshaw on the potential of his agency becoming a Municipal Service Taxing Unit next Friday. You can also hear him talk about it in the audio player above.