Amendment 3

WEBVTT
00:00:08.339 --> 00:00:10.939
Welcome to County Conversations, a St. John's
00:00:10.939 --> 00:00:13.339
County podcast to keep our community informed
00:00:13.339 --> 00:00:15.660
of the programs and services and events provided
00:00:15.660 --> 00:00:18.239
by St. John's County. On this episode, we have
00:00:18.239 --> 00:00:21.039
Wade Schroeder, our Director of Budget and Management
00:00:21.039 --> 00:00:23.739
for the county. Wade, we've been talking about
00:00:23.739 --> 00:00:25.859
the budget. You used a great analogy a couple
00:00:25.859 --> 00:00:28.219
episodes ago about building a puzzle and the
00:00:28.219 --> 00:00:30.989
different puzzle pieces, whether that's a revenue
00:00:30.989 --> 00:00:33.990
or expenditure, capital improvement, carry forwards.
00:00:34.590 --> 00:00:38.250
We talked about the 2027 budget in detail. Let's
00:00:38.250 --> 00:00:42.630
talk about the proposed amendment three, the
00:00:42.630 --> 00:00:46.049
property tax reform amendment that will be placed
00:00:46.049 --> 00:00:49.590
before voters. Walk us through the overview of
00:00:49.590 --> 00:00:52.609
the proposed property tax reform. What does it...
00:00:52.490 --> 00:00:57.570
do if passed by voters this November? Okay. So
00:00:57.570 --> 00:00:59.929
yes, there's a couple of components of that property
00:00:59.929 --> 00:01:04.489
tax amendment. The first being the expanded homestead
00:01:04.489 --> 00:01:07.969
exemption. So under the current Save Our Homes
00:01:07.969 --> 00:01:11.390
protection, properties have about a $50 ,000
00:01:11.390 --> 00:01:16.989
exemption. Under the proposed Amendment 3, that
00:01:16.989 --> 00:01:20.109
exemption would increase from $50 ,000 to $100
00:01:20.109 --> 00:01:23.439
,000. 50 ,000 in year one, and then in year two,
00:01:23.560 --> 00:01:27.359
it would again increase to 250 ,000. So in a
00:01:27.359 --> 00:01:30.459
two -year period, your property tax exemption
00:01:30.459 --> 00:01:34.840
could go from 50 ,000 to 250 ,000, or an increase
00:01:34.840 --> 00:01:37.739
of about five times. And there's also some other
00:01:37.739 --> 00:01:40.140
parameters within that proposed amendment when
00:01:40.140 --> 00:01:43.540
it comes to, there's a five -year waiting period
00:01:43.540 --> 00:01:47.959
for new residents, I think starting January 1st,
00:01:47.959 --> 00:01:52.099
and then also some adjustments to non -residential
00:01:52.099 --> 00:01:55.939
properties. So yes, non -residential properties
00:01:55.939 --> 00:02:00.359
under the current laws, their tax assessment
00:02:00.359 --> 00:02:03.200
or their assessment limitations are at 10 % per
00:02:03.200 --> 00:02:06.739
year, so a non -residential or non -homesteaded
00:02:06.739 --> 00:02:09.780
property, their taxable value could essentially
00:02:09.780 --> 00:02:12.879
increase by up to 10 % each year. Under this
00:02:12.879 --> 00:02:16.080
proposed amendment, that 10 % assessment limitation
00:02:16.080 --> 00:02:20.520
would decrease to five. So if approved by the
00:02:20.520 --> 00:02:24.120
voters on November 3rd, any non -residential
00:02:24.120 --> 00:02:26.219
properties would have that assessment limitation
00:02:26.219 --> 00:02:30.340
of only 5%. So breaking it down in terms of the
00:02:30.340 --> 00:02:34.870
potential impacts that if this is passed by voters
00:02:34.870 --> 00:02:37.310
would have on the St. John's County budget because
00:02:37.310 --> 00:02:39.870
every budget and every county and community and
00:02:39.870 --> 00:02:42.830
city in the state of Florida is different. Remind
00:02:42.830 --> 00:02:45.469
our audience again our budget for fiscal year
00:02:45.469 --> 00:02:52.330
2027 is 1 .9 billion total budget. 1 .9 billion
00:02:52.330 --> 00:02:56.870
and of that about 426 comes from property taxes.
00:02:57.150 --> 00:03:00.270
So with those two numbers in place, walk us through
00:03:00.270 --> 00:03:03.090
what the next three years would look like in
00:03:03.090 --> 00:03:07.629
terms of reduced revenue from property taxes
00:03:07.629 --> 00:03:11.689
if Amendment 3 is passed by voters. Yeah, so
00:03:11.689 --> 00:03:16.330
$426 million is our current property tax revenues
00:03:16.330 --> 00:03:20.569
if Amendment 3 is approved under Year 1, which
00:03:20.569 --> 00:03:23.229
again increases the Homestead Exemption from
00:03:23.229 --> 00:03:28.560
$50 ,000 to $150 ,000. The revenue impact for
00:03:28.560 --> 00:03:30.860
St. Johns County would be about a little more
00:03:30.860 --> 00:03:35.860
than 68 million or about 16 % of our fiscal year
00:03:35.860 --> 00:03:39.539
27 property tax revenues. And then in year two,
00:03:39.560 --> 00:03:43.020
which is really that full implementation of that
00:03:43.020 --> 00:03:48.300
expanded homestead exemption to 250 ,000, our
00:03:48.300 --> 00:03:51.939
revenue impact related to year two is about 136
00:03:51.939 --> 00:03:55.479
million. And that's about 32 % of our current
00:03:55.560 --> 00:03:58.939
property tax revenue. So in a two -year span,
00:03:59.280 --> 00:04:01.819
the county could see a reduction of about 32
00:04:01.819 --> 00:04:06.400
% of our current property taxes. And then moving
00:04:06.400 --> 00:04:11.800
into year three, it's what, $191 potential million
00:04:11.800 --> 00:04:15.159
in lost property tax revenue? Yeah, so that increases
00:04:15.159 --> 00:04:19.019
each year moving forward. You know, these assumptions
00:04:19.019 --> 00:04:22.800
are from the state legislatures. research body,
00:04:22.860 --> 00:04:25.079
so they're not necessarily our assumptions. They're
00:04:25.079 --> 00:04:29.019
the state's research analysts. But yes, it would
00:04:29.019 --> 00:04:33.620
increase each year as additional properties come
00:04:33.620 --> 00:04:36.360
on that are homesteaded as non -residential or
00:04:36.360 --> 00:04:40.160
non -homesteaded properties. See that 5 % cap
00:04:40.160 --> 00:04:44.220
versus a previous 10 % cap. That revenue impact,
00:04:44.319 --> 00:04:46.920
and it's a recurring revenue impact, would increase
00:04:46.920 --> 00:04:50.029
by year five to about $191 million. Now, St.
00:04:50.129 --> 00:04:53.910
Johns County has been very proactive in planning
00:04:53.910 --> 00:04:57.649
for the possibility of this Amendment 3 being
00:04:57.649 --> 00:05:00.589
passed by voters. Walk us through some of the
00:05:00.589 --> 00:05:04.009
steps that, at the staff level, at the administration
00:05:04.009 --> 00:05:07.410
level, at the budgeting level, we've gone through
00:05:07.410 --> 00:05:11.790
to prepare for the possibility of reduced revenue
00:05:11.790 --> 00:05:15.680
from property taxes if Amendment 3 passes. Yes,
00:05:16.220 --> 00:05:20.519
so shortly after the bill was proposed out there,
00:05:20.759 --> 00:05:24.319
the county took a couple steps to kind of identify,
00:05:24.519 --> 00:05:29.019
one, what expenses are, you know, could we pause
00:05:29.019 --> 00:05:32.019
for the moment. They looked at current vacant
00:05:32.019 --> 00:05:34.720
positions within all departments throughout the
00:05:34.720 --> 00:05:39.769
county. If a position is currently vacant, it's
00:05:39.769 --> 00:05:42.310
not necessarily automatically going to be refilled.
00:05:42.750 --> 00:05:44.829
So some of those positions are paused. Only the
00:05:44.829 --> 00:05:47.829
essential ones are being recommended to be refilled.
00:05:48.110 --> 00:05:50.870
And as a result, we would have about a $4 million.
00:05:51.170 --> 00:05:53.410
If none of those positions were refilled, we'd
00:05:53.410 --> 00:05:56.110
have about a $4 million recurring savings there.
00:05:56.689 --> 00:05:59.509
Again, $4 million is a lot, but the year one
00:05:59.509 --> 00:06:04.250
impact of Amendment 3 is $68 million. So on top
00:06:04.250 --> 00:06:08.259
of that, 27 budget included positions that were
00:06:08.259 --> 00:06:11.199
recommended, you know, kind of recommended as
00:06:11.199 --> 00:06:14.379
if Amendment three did not pass but there are
00:06:14.379 --> 00:06:17.680
new positions in the new budget if amendment
00:06:17.680 --> 00:06:21.680
three passes There's a potential that those positions
00:06:21.680 --> 00:06:24.399
may not be filled as well So we could have a
00:06:24.399 --> 00:06:26.759
lot of vacant positions and as a result a lot
00:06:26.759 --> 00:06:32.459
of savings and I'll say thirdly The county has
00:06:32.459 --> 00:06:38.060
a CIP oversight committee They reviewed all projects
00:06:38.060 --> 00:06:41.860
currently underway, any new projects proposed
00:06:41.860 --> 00:06:45.560
in the new fiscal year, and to determine of what
00:06:45.560 --> 00:06:49.019
of those projects could be funded, paused, and
00:06:49.019 --> 00:06:52.040
what kind of savings may we see from that if
00:06:52.040 --> 00:06:53.899
they were all paused and those projects weren't
00:06:53.899 --> 00:06:56.259
complete. And from there, there's about $100
00:06:56.259 --> 00:07:01.019
million in capital improvement projects. Both
00:07:01.019 --> 00:07:04.379
current and proposed new for next year that are
00:07:04.379 --> 00:07:07.379
in some level of a pause scenario And I think
00:07:07.379 --> 00:07:10.839
it's important to note that some of those projects
00:07:10.839 --> 00:07:14.620
one in particular includes public safety. It's
00:07:14.620 --> 00:07:17.639
a Proposed or was being planning on being built
00:07:17.639 --> 00:07:20.220
a new fire station up in the northern part of
00:07:20.220 --> 00:07:22.139
the community and in the beachwalk area, right?
00:07:22.399 --> 00:07:27.439
Yes, so the the beachwalk fire station it's it's
00:07:27.360 --> 00:07:29.660
kind of in just that design phase right now.
00:07:29.779 --> 00:07:32.980
I think the design will continue. However, depending
00:07:32.980 --> 00:07:37.100
on how the turnout of Amendment 3, that position
00:07:37.100 --> 00:07:39.860
may or may not move forward. I do want to just
00:07:39.860 --> 00:07:43.019
kind of say that a pause is definitely not a
00:07:43.019 --> 00:07:48.439
stop. All of these, if Amendment 3 is approved,
00:07:49.019 --> 00:07:51.519
will be reassessed and will determine at that
00:07:51.519 --> 00:07:53.930
time whether to move forward or not. In addition
00:07:53.930 --> 00:07:56.329
to all of the specificity that you just went
00:07:56.329 --> 00:07:59.089
through in terms of planning and adjusting the
00:07:59.089 --> 00:08:01.490
budget for the potential passage of Amendment
00:08:01.490 --> 00:08:04.329
3, it's important to note that there's also been
00:08:04.329 --> 00:08:07.129
some other steps at the staff level and leadership
00:08:07.129 --> 00:08:10.670
level to protect essential services, committing
00:08:10.670 --> 00:08:14.129
of our resources. addressing reoccurring costs
00:08:14.129 --> 00:08:16.449
and just the long -term financial stability of
00:08:16.449 --> 00:08:19.470
the St. John's County when it comes to staff
00:08:19.470 --> 00:08:23.410
looking at all of their services across the platform.
00:08:23.410 --> 00:08:27.990
We've got 380 different services across 18 different
00:08:27.990 --> 00:08:30.250
departments and you and your staff have worked
00:08:30.250 --> 00:08:33.529
with the staff level looking at those services,
00:08:33.570 --> 00:08:39.009
looking at 1 ,137 existing fees and dozens of
00:08:39.009 --> 00:08:41.549
different proposed new fees. Talk to us about
00:08:41.559 --> 00:08:44.220
the granularity and the hard work of rolling
00:08:44.220 --> 00:08:46.840
up the sleeves to see what can be done to adjust
00:08:46.840 --> 00:08:49.679
the budget on the possibility of Amendment 3
00:08:49.679 --> 00:08:54.259
passing. Right. So reviewing all the services
00:08:54.259 --> 00:08:56.500
that the variety of departments do provide to
00:08:56.500 --> 00:08:58.919
the community, trying to make a determination
00:08:58.919 --> 00:09:03.659
of level of essential versus non -essential.
00:09:03.960 --> 00:09:06.559
I don't like to go into that kind of categorizing,
00:09:06.600 --> 00:09:08.860
but that's really what What it's going to come
00:09:08.860 --> 00:09:11.919
down to is what services do we need to provide
00:09:11.919 --> 00:09:15.440
or can we continue to provide? And if we do continue
00:09:15.440 --> 00:09:17.740
to provide them, that's where that kind of that
00:09:17.740 --> 00:09:20.000
revenue side comes in. If there's a current fee
00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:23.580
in place, do we need to increase that fee because
00:09:23.580 --> 00:09:27.000
we have less property taxes? Now we have an alternative
00:09:27.000 --> 00:09:29.840
revenue and maybe we need to increase that fee
00:09:29.840 --> 00:09:32.659
in order to cover a larger portion or really
00:09:32.659 --> 00:09:36.070
cover the entire service being provided. We've
00:09:36.070 --> 00:09:38.409
mentioned it a few times, but it may be worth
00:09:38.409 --> 00:09:42.090
repeating that, again, property tax is one source
00:09:42.090 --> 00:09:45.429
of revenue that makes up the budget. However,
00:09:45.549 --> 00:09:49.350
the property tax allocation for fiscal year 2027,
00:09:50.009 --> 00:09:53.409
about 58 % goes to public safety, the Sheriff's
00:09:53.409 --> 00:09:56.809
Office and Fire Rescue Emergency Services. Another
00:09:56.809 --> 00:09:59.769
13 % goes to maintaining the roads in St. John's
00:09:59.769 --> 00:10:04.220
County. And then another 7%, Wade, goes to quality
00:10:04.220 --> 00:10:06.720
of life services, parks, recreational libraries.
00:10:07.460 --> 00:10:10.940
Yes, so that's your library operations, and it's
00:10:10.940 --> 00:10:13.799
really the staffing of those libraries and the
00:10:13.799 --> 00:10:16.779
operating expenses necessary to keep current
00:10:16.779 --> 00:10:20.340
books on the shelves and any additional operating
00:10:20.340 --> 00:10:24.600
needs, as well as your park programs. That can
00:10:24.600 --> 00:10:27.440
include your summer camp programs, your kayak
00:10:27.440 --> 00:10:32.090
programs. as well as maintenance of our current,
00:10:32.129 --> 00:10:34.950
we have a lot of field space throughout the county,
00:10:35.169 --> 00:10:38.429
a lot of obviously very nice field space. And
00:10:38.429 --> 00:10:42.049
there is a cost to keeping those spaces maintained,
00:10:42.529 --> 00:10:45.870
fixing any issues with them. So yeah, that's
00:10:45.870 --> 00:10:49.049
that 7 % is going towards libraries, the library
00:10:49.049 --> 00:10:52.450
programs and the facilities, as well as the park
00:10:52.450 --> 00:10:55.710
programs and facilities. A lot to unpack here
00:10:55.710 --> 00:10:59.080
with numbers and stats. People might be asking,
00:10:59.360 --> 00:11:01.139
where can I get more information about this?
00:11:01.139 --> 00:11:03.759
How can I educate myself about the budget and
00:11:03.759 --> 00:11:07.120
Amendment 3? You and your team have worked with
00:11:07.120 --> 00:11:12.100
staff to develop a special webpage, sjcfl .us
00:11:12.100 --> 00:11:16.360
slash amendment dash three. That's just a repository
00:11:16.360 --> 00:11:19.000
of a lot of great information, a lot of which
00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:21.820
you shared with us on County Conversations. Right.
00:11:21.860 --> 00:11:24.600
So yes, we've compiled kind of the breakdown
00:11:24.600 --> 00:11:27.340
of what the impacts are. or what the changes
00:11:27.340 --> 00:11:32.080
would be of Amendment 3, identified what revenue
00:11:32.080 --> 00:11:34.279
impacts we may see as a result, and then kind
00:11:34.279 --> 00:11:37.340
of compiled a list of what we see out there as
00:11:37.340 --> 00:11:39.620
frequently asked questions or any additional
00:11:39.620 --> 00:11:43.080
information that residents may want to be able
00:11:43.080 --> 00:11:45.539
to see in order to make a decision. And you mentioned
00:11:45.539 --> 00:11:47.919
information, Wade. It's important to note that
00:11:47.919 --> 00:11:50.899
the county does not advocate for or against Amendment
00:11:50.899 --> 00:11:54.539
3. It's our responsibility just to provide factual
00:11:54.539 --> 00:11:59.039
information to our residents and what we've done
00:11:59.039 --> 00:12:02.379
to prepare for Amendment 3, whether it passes
00:12:02.379 --> 00:12:06.559
or not. So that web page is a factual, a non
00:12:06.559 --> 00:12:10.259
-advocacy web page designed to just provide factual
00:12:10.259 --> 00:12:12.720
information and really the numbers that you've
00:12:12.720 --> 00:12:17.340
shared over the last couple episodes. not necessarily
00:12:17.340 --> 00:12:19.480
taking a position, just providing that information
00:12:19.480 --> 00:12:22.799
so the voters out there can form their own opinion
00:12:22.799 --> 00:12:25.360
and make their decision as they see fit. Well,
00:12:25.360 --> 00:12:27.740
speaking of forming their own opinion, you certainly
00:12:27.740 --> 00:12:30.360
have formed the puzzle. We've completed the puzzle.
00:12:30.519 --> 00:12:32.480
We really appreciate your time, Wade. All the
00:12:32.480 --> 00:12:34.379
puzzle pieces are in place. It looks exactly
00:12:34.379 --> 00:12:37.200
like the cover of the puzzle box. So we're appreciative
00:12:37.200 --> 00:12:40.460
of that. No lost pieces. Wade Schroeder, Director
00:12:40.460 --> 00:12:42.259
of Management and Budget. Thank you so much for
00:12:42.259 --> 00:12:44.019
spending some time and having a conversation
00:12:44.019 --> 00:12:46.299
with us on County Conversations. Thanks for having
00:12:46.299 --> 00:12:50.159
me. Thank you so much for tuning in. Again, we
00:12:50.159 --> 00:12:52.759
appreciate you watching and listening to County
00:12:52.759 --> 00:12:55.259
Conversations, an opportunity to help build community
00:12:55.259 --> 00:12:57.919
trust and educate our community about St. John's
00:12:57.919 --> 00:13:02.120
County. You've been listening to County Conversations
00:13:02.120 --> 00:13:04.559
with Director of Public Affairs for St. John's
00:13:04.559 --> 00:13:07.200
County, Wayne Larson. If you'd like to keep the
00:13:07.200 --> 00:13:09.759
dialogue going, like, share, and leave a review
00:13:09.759 --> 00:13:13.200
on our social media. For news, events, and resources,
00:13:13.580 --> 00:13:17.120
make sure you visit our county website, sjcfl
00:13:17.120 --> 00:13:21.740
.us. That is sjcfl .us.