Seminole removes Amendment 3 opposition links after lawmaker's warning

SEMINOLE — The city has removed links to organizations opposing Amendment 3 and critical news coverage from a taxpayer-funded webpage after a state lawmaker questioned whether the material violated Florida election law.

The changes came after state Rep. Berny Jacques, R-Seminole, sent Mayor Leslie Waters a letter last week accusing the city of using its official website to promote a vote against the property-tax amendment and demanding that the material be removed.

Jacques warned that he was prepared to file a complaint with the Florida Elections Commission if the city did not comply and asked Waters to provide written confirmation by Sept. 30 that the material had been taken down.

By Sept. 30, the links were gone.

The revised Seminole webpage now contains the text of Amendment 3, a Pinellas County analysis of its potential financial impact, a presentation from the city's Sept. 9 council workshop and data from the state's Revenue Estimating Conference.

Gone are links to statements from the Florida Association of County Engineers and Road Superintendents, Florida Library Association, Florida Professional Firefighters and Florida Recreation and Park Association, all of which opposed the amendment, as well as two news stories about criticism of the proposal. Those materials were among seven links on the previous version of the page.

The change follows questions raised by The Pinellas Current, which contacted Jacques' office Sept. 19 asking whether he had the same concerns about Seminole's presentation that he had raised about Largo's Amendment 3 town hall earlier this month. Jacques' office did not respond.

The Current first reported on the city's Amendment 3 alert in a Sept. 18 story about Seminole ending its chamber grant and revisited the issue five days later in its Backroom Talk column. The column noted that Jacques had criticized Largo's handling of the amendment but had yet to raise similar concerns about Seminole.

On Sept. 25, Jacques sent Waters his letter. He wrote that Seminole's handling of Amendment 3 “has been brought to my attention,” but did not say by whom.

The next day, The Current posted a question on Jacques' Facebook announcement about the letter: “Who brought this to your attention, Representative Jacques? Was it the email The Pinellas Current sent your office on Sept. 19 raising this exact issue, which your office did not acknowledge or respond to?”

Jacques did not respond.

Jacques had previously challenged Largo over its Sept. 9 Amendment 3 town hall, arguing that its original lineup presented opposition to the measure without a speaker supporting it. Largo subsequently added Jacques to the panel.

Amendment 3 will appear on Florida's Nov. 3 ballot. Among other changes, it would increase the homestead exemption for non-school property taxes to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028 and reduce the annual assessment-growth cap for non-homestead property from 10% to 5%.

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