Last week, I had the opportunity to hear from the Florida Policy Institute around the impacts of the Property Tax ballot initiative on our community from a new lens: How it will impact the services provided by our nonprofits – and how that can impact the community.

If you are jumping in on part 3, catch up by:

• Getting an overview of the Property Tax ballot initiative by actual journalists.
• Learning how much you will save should it pass.
• Learning how much our community stands to lose.

While the impact on the nonprofit sector warrants its own blog post (to come), there is one thing I can’t stop thinking about:

This ballot initiative is called “Save Our Homes”, but the North Port Fire Chief shared remarks with the FL Senate before they voted to put it on the ballot. He asked them to vote no on “Save Our Homes”.

His public tesitmony shared how this initiative would specifically impact North Port’s fire and emergency services to state officials in Tallahassee at the beginning of the month.

First, I need to just pause and say: This is what leadership looks like. No doubt that Fire Chief Scott Titus is incredibly busy. And no doubt that every moment of his day is incredibly critical to the stability of our community. To take time away from the people and processes that rely on his leadership tells me that his presence in our state capital is high priority.

So when he shows up to be heard by our elected decision makers, then we should also hear him. Because we are decision makers too.

Our vote decides how strong our community will continue to be, and the people who put their lives on the line and to the side for public safety should have their voices amplified in the decision making process. Here are some direct quotes:

Greater than 50% of the revenue required to run public safety in our community would be gone with this.

There’s only 5 dependent fire districts in the entire state. …We cannot fund our EMS services with an assessment. It has to be ad valorem taxes. When we talk about increasing user fees, they are capped to a certain amount: medicare/medicaid and what insurance will pay. So what happens, whatever is not paid by them medicare/medicaid, and if insurance doesn’t cover it, then it ends up self-pay.

I please recommend that you vote no.

Dissecting these comments are worth one more minute of your time:

A dependent fire district is one that is financially tied to a county or local government rather than operating as a more independent taxing authority. They cannot get their funding any other way. (transparency, idk if that is forever or just right now?)

And when he brings up a user fee, that is the bill for an ambulance transport or EMS service. Whoever uses it, pays. (That’s us!)

The district can’t simply charge whatever it wants because:

• Medicare and Medicaid set reimbursement rates.
• Private insurance companies have negotiated payment limits.

Even if the actual cost of an ambulance trip is higher than those rates and limits, they often can’t collect more than those allowed amounts. And what remains needs to be made up – or costs (read: people and services) will have to be cut.

In other words, reducing property tax revenue doesn’t reduce the cost of providing emergency services. The ambulances still need to be staffed. The equipment still needs to be maintained. The calls still need to be answered.

The question becomes: if one of the primary funding sources is reduced, where does the difference come from? For North Port, where will 50%+ of their funding come from?

There aren’t many ways for our first responders to raise revenue. It’s a public good, so everyone needs to be able to access it regardless of their socioeconomic status or geographical location.

Everyone.

Everyone deserves to know that when they call 911, help will be there.

Which brings me back to the question I cannot shake. This amendment is called “Save Our Homes.”

Yet one of the people responsible for literally saving homes from fires traveled to Tallahassee to urge lawmakers not to advance it.

If local governments lose billions in property tax revenue statewide, where will the replacement funding for fire, EMS, hospitals, and police departments come from?

That is a question voters deserve answered before they cast their ballots in November.