Lower property tax rates are the hip new thing
By GREG HAMILTON
Published July 17, 2005
If one does it, it's an anomaly. Two, it's a coincidence. Three, and you can start calling it a trend.
Thus, when one after another, local governments around Florida start talking about cutting their property tax rates, it's worth paying attention. This sort of thing just does not happen every day.
Citrus County commissioners, three of them at least, last week said they were interested in cutting back on the property tax rate to ease the burden on landowners. How much remains to be seen.
Elsewhere, Pasco County commissioners are looking at slicing their property tax rate along with their fire service millage, moves that could save taxpayers about $200. That means the tax bill for a typical homeowner in Pasco would be $67 less next year than it was in 1995, according to a Times report.
And in Manatee County, officials are proposing a large cut in the property tax rate while boosting rates and user fees for a host of county services. County Administrator Ernie Padgett told the Bradenton Herald that these actions shift the costs of growth to the users.
"We don't want people to think we are collecting their property taxes to pay for growth issues," Padgett said. "Why have John Q. Citizen, who is not having a new home built. Why should he pay increased costs for us to have additional employees to serve the building and development community?"
Inverness expects to hold the line on its millage rate this year and may well reduce it. The city has cut its rate every year since 1994. Brooksville is also figuring on dialing back the millage rate.
Astute governments around the state are bringing such reality checks to their budgeting process. Then, there's Crystal River.
Residents of this city heard last week that they are likely to be getting an increase in their tax rate. The rate now is 5.6 mills. (One mill equals $1 of tax for every $1,000 of taxable property.) The new rate could be 6.19 mills, maybe even 8.19 mills.
As with most things related to City Hall, the reasons for the increase are hard to explain or to understand.
If you are wondering why comparatively huge governmental entities such as Citrus, Pasco and Manatee counties can manage their many millions of dollars and responsibilities so much better than this tiny town, you are not alone. It all provides more ammunition to those forces seeking to dissolve the city government.
Back in the real world, responsible government officials are trying to offset the damaging dark side of the real estate boom. As property values go through the roof nationwide, people in many areas of the country are in real danger of being taxed right out of their homes.
Floridians, however, are among those fortunate homeowners who are shielded from skyrocketing tax increases because of Amendment 10. The so-called Save Our Homes constitutional amendment passed in 1992 limits the rise in property valuations to no more than 3 percent a year.
That protection, however, applies only if you stay in your home. If you become seduced by the rising value of your home and decide to cash in and sell, the buyer will pay taxes based on today's assessment. Gulp.
The home you move into will get the Amendment 10 shield, but it will start all over again and be based on a current assessment. Double gulp.
In Citrus County, a largely retiree community where people tend to stay in their homes for many years, the impact of Amendment 10 on local government is substantial. Property Appraiser Melanie Hensley estimated that the amount of taxable value being written off this year is well over $600-million.
That translates into $24-million that the various taxing authorities did not get to take from your pockets this year.
Yet the governments are hardly complaining (except, of course, for Crystal River). With taxable values soaring, governments are finding themselves awash in extra money and in position to return some of it to property owners (except, of course ... well, you know).