Maxwell Frost and Sheila DeCiccio hear from Winter Park residents on SunRail, Amendment 3 and More
At a town hall held at Mead Botanical Garden this week residents also asked about everything from AI policy to Tourist Development Taxes
Oct. 2, 2026
By Gabrielle Russon
On a Friday in March, more than 12,000 passengers rode SunRail in and out to visit the Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival.
But that weekend, the SunRail shut down like normal for the remainder of the festival. No trains ran, no matter how much Winter Park officials wanted them.
“We beg them. We will pay you. Can we please have it on the busy weekend?” Winter Park Mayor Sheila DeCiccio said. “Wouldn’t that be great for Winter Park?
The answer — still an emphatic “no.”
Now, DeCiccio said she is “leading the charge with the mayors in Central Florida to ask the Legislature to change the law and free up the hundreds of millions of Orange County hotel tax revenue to help fund public transportation.
DeCiccio and U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost held a 90-minute town hall Thursday night at Mead Botanical Garden to listen to residents’ concerns and talk about the citywide issues, including parking, traffic and a lack of public transportation.
One resident asked if it was a good sign that SunRail got special late-night weeknight trains to transport theater-goers seeing “Hamilton” this month at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.
“I hope so,” DeCiccio said as she said she keeps working on expanding weekend SunRail service.
Winter Park is a regional tourism destination with a thriving Saturday farmer’s market, weekend Track Shack running races and beloved holiday traditions in the downtown that draw thousands. And the city’s train station allows passengers to hop on and off the rail from the center of most of the action: Central Park.
“Really it should run all weekend because there’s so many people that come in and out,” the mayor said.
DeCiccio sent letters to other local mayors urging them to join the fight in reforming the 6% hotel tax which is also known as the tourist development tax (TDT).
Frost, who represents the city of Winter Park in Congress, also called transportation one of his top priorities. He expressed support for using TDT money for transportation but said he hopes federal funding from an infrastructure package emerges after the November election when Democrats are predicted to make up ground in Washington, D.C.
The lack of public transportation “is really holding us back” and preventing Central Florida from attracting large-scale events and helping tourism workers get to their jobs, Frost said.
US Rep. Maxwell Frost and Winter Park Mayor Sheila DeCiccio speak to residents on Oct. 1 at at town hall at Mead Botanical Garden.
At Thursday’s town hall, other residents used their moment of face time with the two elected officials Thursday to complain about Winter Park’s brick streets, express their fears about the threat of artificial intelligence and ask about other issues.
Don’t hold your breath for any immediate federal laws to protect humanity from AI.
“I’m going to be honest with you guys. Part of the problem is Congress lacks the expertise and technology to be able to move forward and pass real comprehensive legislation,” Frost said.
Dominating Thursday’s discussion was Amendment 3 as both DeCiccio and Frost expressed their concerns about the constitutional amendment to increase non-school homestead exemptions.
Amendment 3 is the latest threat to local governments after the state has been eroding away at local home rule for years, they said.
“We had an ordinance you couldn’t just take down a big beautiful oak or tree in your yard,” DeCiccio said, citing an example of how the state is superseding Winter Park’s authority to make decisions. “We love our trees. It’s part of our charm. It’s part of our character. It keeps us cool.”
Instead Tallahassee passed a 2022 bill allowing people to cut down a dead or dying tree without a local permit which developers are taking advantage of to remove trees, DeCiccio said.
Local governments losing millions of revenue would be forced to ask Tallahassee for approval and funding.
“They’re trying to push our local governments to have to go to Tallahassee and beg for crumbs and money to be able to do anything. And that’s about power,” Frost said.
DeCiccio warned the city would be forced to close the library “a few days a week” and its police and fire response times would get slower. Also potentially getting cut would be city festivities in the park to celebrate holidays, “all of the things that make Winter Park so very special,” she said.
One resident asked how people can get involved to help defeat Amendment 3.
“One thing is to have conversations with people in your neighborhood,” said Frost, whose political career started as a community organizer. “You know who are the homeowners, who are the tenants. Reach out to a neighbor and talk to them about it. … If everybody in this room spoke with 20 people between now and Election Day, that could literally mean the difference between it passing and it not passing.”
If at least 60% of voters approve the Amendment 3 on Nov. 3, the constitutional amendment would increase the state’s non-school homestead exemptions to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028, and tie further increases in 2029 annually to inflation.
New Florida residents would be required to wait five years to get the full property tax break.
Under Amendment 3, Winter Park City Manager Randy Knight previously said the city would need to cut an estimated $3.7 million in the first year, followed by another $7.5 million the second year.
The Florida Realtors, which spent $10 million on its Vote Yes on 3 political committee last month, are the loudest advocates for Amendment 3 along with conservative state lawmakers and Gov. Ron DeSantis who have been calling out for property tax relief for months.
Real estate agents make their livings off commissions from home sales and a report published on Realtor.com asserted that eliminating property taxes on owner-occupied homes would increase prices by 7% to 9%. In turn, such a move would also juice commissions for Realtors.
“Florida families are facing rising costs from every direction, from housing and insurance to groceries and everyday necessities. Amendment 3 provides meaningful property-tax relief at a time when many homeowners need it most,” said the Florida Realtors in a statement this week.
Meanwhile, the Florida Sheriffs Association, the Florida State Fraternal Order of Police and the Florida Professional Firefighters have come out strongly against Amendment 3 with the groups saying it could have the opposite effect by eating into the appeal of safety and other amenities provided by local governments that make many neighborhoods so desirable.
WinterParkVoiceEditor@gmail.com
Kudos to Gabrielle for excellent reporting of this Town Hall Meeting. I was there and am so impressed by Maxwell Frost’s knowledge and Sheila DeCiccio’s passionate leadership. The complaint about WP’s brick streets left me stunned. The solution, in most cases, is to repave the bricks, not cover them with smooth asphalt.. They are a big part of Winter Parks’ history and charm. Our neighborhood, Killarney Estates, was re-bricked through CRA funds, and retains its beauty.
Thank you for advocating for TDT dollars to be used for public transportation. With the tens of thousands of employees at theme parks, the amount of time that so many of them spend traveling to work is pathetic. I would love to see special routes that make limited stops to and from the parks and nearby hotels. And considering the parking nightmare at MCO, wouldn’t it be great to have SunRail stops to the airport with connecting buses to the parks? We’re so limited by special interest groups.
There is something seriously wrong with this picture. We have two elected officials who are paid with our tax dollars, using a government subsidized building, who invited the public to attend using government resources (i.e. email, staff time, etc.) in order to lobby and encourage lobbying against Amendment 3, which is intended to lower our tax burden. In other words, our money is being used to lobby against our interests. This stinks of corruption.
Bonnie, I appreciate your comments as always. For the record, public and elected officials use public forums to advocate for or against policy decisions all the time. When Gov. Ron DeSantis used a state plane and security and other public resources to travel to Palm Beach State College last week to advocate FOR Amendment 3 was that also corrupt? Or was he just advocating for the position he believes in and sharing, as an official elected by the people, his policy perspective?