Wells says contribution didn't buy a tax break

An appraisal was lowered by $1-million after a campaign donation to the property appraiser.

By CHUIN-WEI YAP, Times Staff Writer
Published January 20, 2008

DADE CITY - Two months after getting $4,500 in campaign contributions from the Iafrate family, Property Appraiser Mike Wells granted the family's landfill company, Angelo's Aggregate Materials, a $1-million appraisal discount.

The reduction in the assessment on Angelo's Enterprise Road landfill - next door to the one that the company is proposing on Messick Road - means an estimated $22,000 in tax savings for the Iafrates.

The Iafrates' donations to Wells' unopposed re-election campaign are part of $89,000 that the family has given out so far to an array of Republican candidates and committees.

Wells said the contributions did not influence the reduction in the Iafrates' appraisal values.

"The two have absolutely nothing to do with each other," he said Thursday. "You either believe that, or you don't."

He said a special magistrate, and not his office, had recommended the tax reduction.

"If I were to do a favor to this taxpayer, this matter would not have made it to an appeal," he said. "I would have just done it. I had no specific knowledge about this account until 10 minutes ago."

Wells said Dominic Iafrate had complained to him that the assessment on the 158-acre property was too high. Wells told him to appeal it.

On Sept. 6 - a day before the Iafrates contributed to Wells' campaign - the company's attorney filed a petition with the Pasco Value Adjustment Board to have the assessment reduced.

Wells' chief deputy, Wade Barber, said Angelo's presented an engineering report by John Arnold - who is also working for Angelo's other landfill project - arguing that the property appraiser had overcounted the area in the landfill that could be mined. Mineable land is more valuable. The property appraiser's office counted 115 acres. Arnold counted 58.

The property appraiser's office did not challenge the engineer's report.

On Nov. 1, a magistrate sent the matter back to Wells' office.

"Property appraiser agrees he contemplated too much mineable area in developing his assessment," the magistrate, Rick Rape, wrote. "In view of this, special magistrate remands matter to property appraiser with instructions to consider proper amount of mineable area."

Days later, the property appraiser's office and Angelo's representatives agreed to reduce the assessment from $6.58-million to $5.55-million. Angelo's initially sought $5.03-million.

Barber said this is the first time Angelo's has disputed its official appraisal. Angelo's has operated the Enterprise Road landfill since 2004.

The property's taxable value has grown in the last three years, Wells said. In 2005, the assessed value was $2.42-million. In 2006, it was $4.95-million. In 2007, it was $6.58-million - until Angelo's appealed.

Wells said the reduction is unusual. "It doesn't happen very often," he said.

But he said Angelo's "does not have a friend in the property appraiser's office."

"I'm in my 12th year here," he said. "I have no friends, doing this work. I treat everyone the same. The decision to reduce was made by the special magistrate. It was remanded to us to use the engineering report on the acreage. I don't even look at these things."

Dominic Iafrate denied there was anything unusual about the reduction.

"We hired an appraiser to appraise all of our Florida properties, in Pasco and elsewhere, some of which received reductions," he wrote in an e-mail Friday. "I only wish we had done this earlier as we would have saved valuable resources. Needless to say, this issue had nothing to do with Mr. Wells."

Now, Wells says, he might re-examine the assessment. He isn't confident anymore in the acreages cited in Angelo's engineering report.

"I might raise it back up again," he said.

Times staff writer David DeCamp and researcher Carolyn Edds contributed to this story. Chuin-Wei Yap can be reached at cyap@sptimes.com or (813)909-4613.

[Last modified January 19, 2008, 20:35:40]