ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – A second attempt at a sales tax for transportation funding will not be on the November 2024 ballot in Orange County.
Orange County commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to suspend the effort for the sales tax ballot initiative, with an eye toward revisiting the plan in 2026.
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“From the beginning, I wanted to at least have the conversation because so many people in the community wanted us to have the conversation, they wanted to give input,” said Mayor Jerry Demings, who championed the initiative in 2022 and this year, but in the end moved to suspend the issue Tuesday. “We certainly have made a noble attempt to do that, but in order to have the meaningful dialogue and have an appropriate vote, and the buy-in we need going forward to not have failure at the ballot box, I just don’t think we can get there.”
The initiative would have increased the sales tax to fund a mass transport system that expanded SunRail, added more buses and routes to LYNX’s fleet, improved pedestrian safety and also roads.
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After weeks of community meetings, commissioners on Tuesday were supposed to finalize whether the sales tax increase would have been a half-penny or a penny, and whether it was supposed to last for 10 years or 20 years.
Orange County has said that a 1% sales tax increase could generate more than $750 million each year.
But during a workshop Tuesday afternoon, commissioners asked pointed questions about the projects being looked at, the division of funding, and whether the county was maximizing the dollars it already had.
The commission needed to have a decision made ahead of a final vote on April 23 in order to get the issue on the ballot. Demings said there was no way the county was going to be able to satisfy all of the questions in time.
“I think realistically, given the complexities of the issues that you’ve brought up, we can’t get that done by the 23rd, just realistically,” Demings said.
Fifty-eight percent of voters rejected the transportation sales tax initiative in 2022.
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