Water watchdogs are raising alarms about Amendment 3, the statewide ballot initiative initially championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis that would slash property tax funding for local governments.
The measure would also cut funding for Florida’s five water management districts, which are responsible for stopping floods, securing the drinking water supply, preventing toxic algae blooms and overseeing millions of acres of public land. About 30% of the districts’ budgets, on average, come from property taxes — although the exact percentage varies widely by district.
“I think it’s pretty scary,” said Julie Wraithmell, executive director of Audubon Florida, an environmental nonprofit. “It’s an element of the tax reduction that a lot of folks aren’t picking up on.”
Cuts to the water management districts would come alongside more widely publicized cuts to local governments’ health, public safety and other programs.
At the same time, cities and counties have been enjoying higher tax revenues from growing property values and ongoing development, which is what sparked the push to pass Amendment 3.
“Now is actually a time when the districts desperately need to be able to make new investments to ensure that they can deliver the same level of service, and instead they may have to make do with even less,” Wraithmell said.
If approved by 60% of Florida voters, Amendment 3 would raise the homestead exemption on property taxes, shielding $250,000 of property value from tax instead of the current $50,000. Across the board, Florida property tax revenues are expected to fall by up to $12 billion a year if the amendment passes.
The water management districts have been tight-lipped about how they would handle the lost revenue and which services they’d be forced to cut.
“If Amendment 3 passes, it would not affect the district’s budget until the following fiscal year,” said Ashley Evitt, a spokesperson for the St. Johns River Water Management District. “At that time, the district would evaluate any potential impacts and address them through its regular budget planning process.”
The remaining water management districts either declined to comment or didn’t respond to interview requests.
“The water management districts haven’t really talked about this, I suspect because they’re worried about political blowback,” said Gil Smart, executive director of Vote Water, a clean water advocacy group. “But the reality is this is going to be a real hardship for them.”
Cuts across the peninsula
The water management districts are funded through a combination of property taxes, water permit fees, and state or federal money for specific projects, such as the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir.
Amendment 3 would hit hardest for the Southwest Florida Water Management District and the St. Johns River Water Management District, which rely on property taxes for the majority of their budgets, and the South Florida Water Management District, which gets about a quarter of its money from property taxes.
Together, those three regions cover most of the Florida peninsula and about 90% of the money the state spends on water management districts.
All three districts cover parts of Central Florida, which is staring down a projected drinking water shortage of about 96 million gallons a day by 2045, according to state estimates. The districts have been funding efforts to conserve water, refill aquifers and find alternative sources of drinking water such as siphoning water from rivers and lakes or recycling wastewater.
“They are maxed out on being able to provide water supply as Orlando grows, even with the permits that have already been issued,” said Eric Draper, a conservationist and policy consultant who formerly led Audubon Florida and the Florida Park Service.
The St. Johns River Water Management District is also working on major projects to improve water quality in the St. Johns River Estuary and Indian River Lagoon. Nutrient pollution in Indian River Lagoon contributed to 1,225 manatee deaths between 2020 and 2022, among other environmental problems.
In South Florida, one of the main concerns is the long-delayed maintenance on aging pumps, locks, gates and canals that drain the Everglades and keep more than nine million residents in the region above water, according to Draper.
The problem is so serious that last year, the South Florida Water Management District got permission from the state to keep its millage rate — the percentage of a property’s value that it collects in tax — flat, instead of lowering it as the districts have done most years since Rick Scott was governor.
In its proposed budget, the district said it needed the extra money to “ensure mission critical flood control functions continue,” as well as to support Everglades restoration and water quality projects. This year, the district once again proposed to hold millage rates steady to support “the rehabilitation and resilience of the district’s aging flood control infrastructure.”
‘There won’t be fat to cut’
The water management districts are already dealing with depleted budgets that date back to 2011, when state legislators and then-Gov. Scott cut the districts’ spending by about 40%, leading to hundreds of layoffs and pared back programs to buy land for water conservation.
Under Scott and DeSantis, the districts have generally rolled back their millage rates most years to keep their property tax revenues roughly flat, meaning they haven’t kept pace with inflation or the rate of development in Florida, according to Draper.
That leaves little room to cut if Amendment 3 once again slashes district revenues, according to Wraithmell.
“Since the Scott administration, the districts have been getting squeezed and squeezed and squeezed and squeezed with these rollbacks, and right now they’re very skinny,” said Wraithmell. “So there won’t be fat to cut. It’ll be muscle.”
