A political action committee has been incorporated in Tampa to lobby against the property tax referendum on November's ballot.
Vote No on 3 was started by Bryan Desloge, a former Leon County Commissioner. Desloge said these kinds of decisions should be left to local governments. That way, residents can let city and county officials know what services they think need to be kept - or cut.
"This is doing surgery with an ax," Desloge said. "This is pretty catastrophic, and the local governments around the state of Florida are looking at this and looking at it as though there's a tidal wave coming at them."
Desloge spent 15 years in Leon County as a county commissioner. He headed the Florida Association of Counties based in Tallahassee. And then he headed the National Association of Counties. He's now retired and living on a boat.
"I agree with the governor, and a lot of his policies. This is just a bad idea," he said. "They, people, think somehow that there's going to be a free lunch here, and that we're going to suddenly get taxes lowered, and there's not going to be any impact."
If the referendum gets passed by at least 60 percent of the voters, it would raise the homestead exemption for non-school property taxes to $250,000 by 2028.
Proponents say local governments are rife with fat that can be cut.
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Desloge said his long association with municipalities has given him a sense of what they'll go through if the referendum passes.
"Eighty percent of our budgets is already mandated (by public safety, such as police and fire protection)," he said, "So the fluff in the budgets that are things like parks and rec and libraries and arts and culture, social services — those are the things that are going to get the biggest hit."
He says these kinds of decisions should be made locally, and not by Tallahassee politicians.
"If you think a commission, a county commission, a city commission, a school board is spending money that's not appropriate - you think it's being spent poorly, vote them out of office," he said. "Don't allow the people in Tallahassee or the people in D.C. to tell you how you can and can't spend your money."
His PAC has raised barely $800 in its first week. Desloge currently has no plans for television or print ads, but hopes to educate voters about the referendum's implications.
Desloge said he knows this will be a tough battle, as it's admittedly difficult to get people to vote against a tax cut for themselves.
"We're fighting an uphill battle, but it's the right thing to do," he said. "And I think for the state of Florida, the ripple effect for this going forward for the next decade will be not something I think most of us would like to see our state become."
