Seminole County commissioners face reality of Amendment 3 impacts on future budgets

Seminole County commissioners are beginning to plan for budget changes tied to Amendment 3, after voters overwhelmingly approved the measure.

Commission Chair Andria Herr said the county is already accounting for the impacts and expects the budgeting process to continue over the next several months, including additional work in January.

“Our citizens have spoken. We will listen to them,” Herr said. “They’re asking for tax cuts. We’re gonna give them tax cuts. But we’ve made no decisions on how we’re gonna fund things that have to be funded that they expect to be funded.”

Herr said services that rely heavily on property tax revenue include emergency operations, law enforcement and fire services — which she said previously received nearly 71% of the county’s property tax funding.

During the meeting, commissioners called for more detail on costs and allocations for several topics, including a long-term water management project and additional animal services codes currently under consideration.

To explain the limits of budget allocation flexibility, Herr compared funding sources to an ice cube tray.

“I can’t take water out of one cube and put it in another cube to make a bigger cube,” Herr said. “That’s how our budgets work.”

Herr added that transparency is key as the county explains to the public where impacts may be felt and why it’s hard to shuffle budgets around from department to department.

“We have to be much more deliberate… talking about where that economic impact hits,” she said. “Is it in fact ad valorem or is it another fund?”

Herr said under Amendment 3, local governments are in a position of waiting to see what the state can fill in with grants or other funding sources — though she said it’s unclear what, if any, additional help would come.

The county said the budgeting process for the next two fiscal years — when Amendment 3 tax changes take effect — is already underway and will ramp up more in January 2027.