Duval County taxpayers may soon see another school tax referendum on the ballot.

For many residents, the reaction isn’t excitement — it’s a familiar question: didn’t we just do this?

Property values have gone up. Tax bills have gone up.
And now voters may be asked to approve another school tax.

Last night the Duval County School Board passed a resolution to keep the additional millage rate in place and continue spending money voters were originally told would last four years.

We’ve seen this movie before — temporary taxes that quietly become permanent ones. Sigh.

And every time these campaigns roll around, the messaging sounds the same: vote yes so we can pay teachers more.

Let’s be honest. Nobody wants to vote against teachers. That’s the emotional pressure point every time.

But taxpayers are starting to ask a different question:

Before asking us for more money… what happened to the money you already got from us?

Across Florida, state leaders are launching DOGE-style reviews of local government spending, digging into cities and counties to uncover waste and inefficiency.

Those efforts have already exposed plenty of waste, fraud and abuse.

But school districts handle billions of taxpayer dollars and rely heavily on property taxes and voter-approved referendums.

So the next logical step seems pretty simple.

If Florida is auditing counties and cities through the DOGE initiative, school districts should face the same scrutiny.

Taxpayers aren’t against paying teachers more so please don’t let emotional campaigns by high paid consultants get in the way of facts.

Here’s what we are asking: We want the school district to OPEN THEIR BOOKS in full transparency of how they are spending our money before being asked to OPEN OUR WALLETS AGAIN.