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).
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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% .