Democratic Sen. Shevrin Jones put it in plainer terms.

“Lipstick on a pig is what we’re looking at,” he said. “This is not a tax relief. This is a tax shift — you might not pay it on this, but you’re going to pay it on that.”

Jones was among more than a dozen notable members of South Florida’s Black community to convene for a news conference outside of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Miami Gardens, Florida’s largest Black-majority municipality.

The through line of the event: Voters shouldn’t fall for the bait-and-switch Republicans are offering, as it will devastate local budgets and, by extension, the myriad services they provide to Floridians.

“If you have a medical emergency, it’s firefighters that respond. If you have a law enforcement emergency, it’s the police department that actually gets there quickly. It’s your parks. It’s your roads. It’s that extra meal for senior citizens that might only have one meal a day. It’s all of those things,” said Miami-Dade County Commissioner Oliver Gilbert, who is almost assuredly bound for Congress after defeating Jones and five Primary opponents last month.

Gilbert noted that riders on Miami-Dade’s Metrobus today pay only about 11% of the actual cost of their fare, with the rest being covered by the county general fund. That rate will rise steeply if Amendment 3 passes, he said, while popular programs like the county’s no-kill policy at animal shelters would be placed on the proverbial cutting board.

And it’s not even what residents want, he added.

“The things that make us a special community — that’s in the general fund. That’s what they’re attacking,” he said. “When we sent (people) up to Tallahassee and asked them to reduce insurance, they came back with a plan that would close your parks, raise your bus fare, reduce your law enforcement and slow times for rescue response. That’s not what we asked for.”

Amendment 3, if approved, would raise the homestead exemption for non-school taxes from about $51,000 to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028, then adjust it annually for inflation beginning in 2029. It would also lower the annual assessment-growth cap on non-homestead property for non-school taxes from 10% to 5%.

The Revenue Estimating Conference projected the measure would reduce local non-school property tax collections by $11.86 billion a year once fully phased in. It includes no replacement revenue.

The measure needs 60% approval Nov. 3, and it appears the more voters learn about it, the less they like it.

A July University of North Florida poll found 61% support for the proposal, but that support fell to 45% once respondents heard about the hit to local budgets.

In a James Madison Institute poll last month, support among likely voters dropped from 76% to 55% after they heard about tradeoffs.

And a St. Pete Polls survey conducted for Florida Politics Sept. 15-17 found Amendment 3 with 45% support and 30% opposition, with the remaining quarter of respondents still undecided.

That’s hardly surprising, said Genesis Robinson, Executive Director of Equal Ground, which organized the news conference.

“Families are struggling with housing costs. Homeowners are dealing with rising insurance premiums. Renters are watching as their monthly payments continue to climb, and groceries and utilities and transportation costs seem to go up. And so we know that families are looking for relief, and we understand that the promise of lower property taxes may sound appealing,” she said.

“What is being proposed is being presented as tax relief, but it could mean a devastating reduction in the revenue available to our local governments to provide the services that we all depend on. That means hospitals and health services, our firefighters, our EMTs and first responders, programs for our children, seniors and veterans, arts, our libraries, roads and bridges. These are not luxuries. These are basic services that help keep our communities, safe, functioning, strong and vibrant.”

Florida City Commissioner Trina Wilborn called Amendment 3 “an organized hijack,” while United Teachers of Dade President Tony White derided the measure as “a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

“They’re dangling dollars in the face of homeowners, and what’s really taking place is the dollar is blurring their vision,” Wilborn said.

Katherine Leiva, Executive Director of the youth-focused nonprofit, Engage Miami, noted that analyses of Amendment 3 offer grim glimpses into its effects.

A study by the Florida Policy Institute, for instance, found that in the first three years of the measure’s passage, the North Broward Hospital District would lose more than $100 million and Jackson Health System — Miami-Dade’s public hospital network — would suffer a nearly $64 million shortfall. A related examination found public children’s services across Florida would lose more than $278 million in the first two fiscal years of Amendment 3’s implementation.

“That funding supports parenting programs, family and community support, school health programs and summer internships for young people,” she said. “These are not abstract budget numbers.”

Jones acknowledged that conversations need to be had about how property taxes are levied in Florida and how local governments are spending the money.

CFO Blaise Ingoglia has made that latter matter a priority of his Office since his appointment to the job last year, highlighting what he characterized as fiduciary irresponsibility by Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, among many others, and numerous municipalities — sometimes using news conferences to stump for Amendment 3.

“We should be having strong conversations of how to bring relief to you. We should be having conversations of what it means to lower your taxes, lower your insurance rates,” Jones said.

“But we’re not doing that. … We’re having to deal with politics, (and) this has nothing to do with Democrat (or) Republican, because when you look at your bank account, there’s no ‘D’ or ‘R’ next to it, or even when you pay your bill. Vote ‘no’ on this. Why? Because there’s a better way to do it.”

Tamarac Democratic Sen. Rosalind Osgood, firefighter/paramedic and former congressional candidate Bernard Taylor, Reverend Gregory Thompson, Pastor Arthur Jackson III, resident Merline Merle Malcom and others participated in the news conference.

The General Election is Nov. 3.

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