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Despite the pandemic and unemployment, voters in 17 out of 18 Florida counties voted higher taxes for themselves this week.

They ranged from funding a hospital to protecting children, but the majority of the hikes will to to fund schools.

Voters in ten counties voted to continue or raise property and sales taxes to fund schools.

Combined, the measures passed with 62.8 percent of the vote.

Political Scientist Susan MacManus said it should come as no surprise.

“I think its a message about education being a high priority, particularly to people with children. There’s a lot of frustration,” said MacManus.

The successful referendums follow 2018, when 21 of 21 counties voted to tax themselves for schools.

“You want to understand this suburban moms everyone talks about? Look no further than what’s affecting her children,” said MacManus.

But this year wasn’t unanimous.

In rural Liberty County a half cent tax referendum lost by 17 votes.

“It’s a front porch to our community, our schools are,” said Donnie Read, Liberty County GOP Chair.

Administrators there committed the cardinal sin of local tax referendums.

“We should have let them know what it was for. We should have had a campaign of some kind. You know, I just don’t think we did a very good job of doing that, you know,” said Read.

MacManus and the Florida School Boards Association have suggested the successful referendums should be taken by lawmakers as a message to provide more school funding from the state level.

Ten counties also raised taxes for Children’s services, protecting the environment and law enforcement.

Combined the 20 referendums averaged 65 percent of the vote, so it’s clear Floridians are not tax adverse, as long as they know where the money is going.

Voters also approved business tax breaks for new jobs in nine counties, and voters in Gilchrist County ended the last Sunday ban on alcohol sales in the state.