Pinellas County residents go to cast their voting ballots at the Coliseum polling precinct on Nov. 8, 2022. (Photo by Octavio Jones/Getty Images)
While voters statewide weighed in on the six proposed constitutional amendments, Floridians up and down the state approved local referenda that will shape their communities.
The most widespread local initiatives that passed involved school funding through increases in either millage or sales taxes. Nineteen counties approved or renewed such measures, according to the Florida Education Association.
Those counties were: Alachua, Collier, Escambia, Franklin, Gulf, Hernando, Hillsborough, Indian River, Jackson, Manatee, Marion, Monroe, Orange, Palm Beach, Pinellas, Sarasota, Seminole, St. Johns, and St Lucie.
Hillsborough County narrowly renewed a 15-year extension of its Community Investment Tax, a half-cent sales tax that has helped fund infrastructure projects since 1996 (when it was originally approved to help build what became Raymond James Stadium, the home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers).
One difference in the renewal of the tax (which will begin in 2026 and go to 2041) is that while it now allocates 25% of those funds to the Hillsborough County School Board, sitting conservative county commissioners had already voted to reduce education funding for the next 15 years to just 5%.
Term Limits
While the Legislature failed to pass a measure earlier this year that would have set eight-year term limits for county commissioners throughout the state, voters in Pinellas County did pass a charter amendment that will limit county commissioners to 12-year terms.
In the Broward County city of Coral Springs, voters approved a referendum setting a lifetime service limit of 16 years for city commissioners, retaining the 8-year consecutive term limit, and extending the mayor’s term from two years to four years.
Affordable housing
Orange County voters overwhelmingly approved Amendment 2, which supports the continued existence of an Affordable Housing Trust Fund created in 2020 to help build and preserve affordable housing in the county. It included oversight and auditing requirements.
Pay raises for city commissioners
Fifty-six percent of voters in Tallahassee approved a measure that nearly doubles the salaries of city commissioners, from roughly “$45,000 to $90,000” according to the Tallahassee Democrat. Meanwhile, voters in Brevard County rejected a proposal that would have increased the pay of county commissioners from $60,000 to more than $100,000.
Land acquisition
Voters in Central Florida’s Osceola County renewed a proposal to approve up to $70 million in bonds to continue funding an environmental land conservation program for the next 20 years. And in Fort Myers, residents approved up to $75 million in bonds for the planning of improvements and new construction across 18 proposed parks and facilities over ten years.
Taking back control of a municipal electric utility
More than 70% of Gainesville residents voted to repeal the state appointment of Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) Authority board members and put that power back into the hands of the city commission and charter officer.
Since 2023, Gainesville’s public utilities have been overseen by a board appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. That took place after the Legislature passed and DeSantis signed a law amending the Gainesville city charter and took control of that agency away from the (all-Democratic) Gainesville City Commission and gave it to newly created Gainesville Regional Utilities Authority.
However, that’s not the end of the story. A state circuit judge ruled last month that the Gainesville Regional Utilities Authority cannot be dissolved until the outcome of a lawsuit that the authority filed against the city of Gainesville in June after the commission put the referendum on the ballot. A two-day legal hearing to resolve the issue has been scheduled to take place in December.