Property taxes/Value Adjustment Board

[Busta Hustle]

walton county has just formed a new board to here complaints that are not settled between owners and the property appraisers office. It is called the Value Adjustment Board and is made up of 3 commissioners and 2 school board members. Let the lines form and the debates begin!

 

[Bob]

That's going to be one busy group this year.

 

[Smiling JOe]

New? I thought all counties always had them.

 

[Busta Hustle]

true but as you know it was only last october that Ms.Meadows posted comments on how difficult it is to win a case...with prices dropping, foreclosures and auctions all around, sellers listing below there 2004 purchase prices it seemed a good time to revise this thread. Also it will be new to very many folks who do not know much about the way property taxes work in Florida. Also there may be some out of towners that are not aware of the Govs. attempts to bring changes to taxes and insurances. And just maybe a dialogue of citizen ideas can find a better way...I wonder what would happen if your assessed value was fixed at 75% of your purchase price for the life of ownership. And in stead of a property owner having to prove his case the county commission would have to prove their case as to the price of their budget.

 

[Smiling JOe]

And in stead of a property owner having to prove his case the county commission would have to prove their case as to the price of their budget.

:clap_1::clap_1::clap_1:

 

[RedSpeck]

It's true, the Value Adjustment Board(s) have been in effect for years in Florida's counties. However, it has only been within the past couple of years (this past year in particular), that market values have risen so sharply that people have actually gone to the trouble of petitioning their property assessments.

And while I think it is a good effort on the part of the Governor and the State Legislature to attempt to establish some type of property tax reform, I believe that the system we already have in place would work just fine if our collective taxing authorities would stop "backing in" to their budgets. And whether they like to hear it or not, that's exactly what they do. Rather than determine what their budget needs are going to be for the upcoming year, they simply sit back and wait to receive the preliminary tax roll figures from the county property appraiser, and then calculate how much money they'll have to "play with" using their current millage rates.

That's not how it is supposed to work, and, IMHO, it demonstrates laziness on the part of the taxing authorities.

Perhaps the easiest thing the State could do would be to only allow the taxing authorities to increase their budgets by the rate of growth their county or municipality has seen from the previous year, plus the Consumer Price Index, or roughly 3%.

This way the taxing authorities could easily project their budgets, and "craziness" in the market, such as what we've all seen over the past couple of years, would not have such a dramatic affect on property taxes.

And while that may not be a perfect solution (even though I personally think it comes pretty darn close), it sure beats trying to reinvent the wheel.

 

[BeachSiO2]

It's true, the Value Adjustment Board(s) have been in effect for years in Florida's counties. However, it has only been within the past couple of years (this past year in particular), that market values have risen so sharply that people have actually gone to the trouble of petitioning their property assessments.

And while I think it is a good effort on the part of the Governor and the State Legislature to attempt to establish some type of property tax reform, I believe that the system we already have in place would work just fine if our collective taxing authorities would stop "backing in" to their budgets. And whether they like to hear it or not, that's exactly what they do. Rather than determine what their budget needs are going to be for the upcoming year, they simply sit back and wait to receive the preliminary tax roll figures from the county property appraiser, and then calculate how much money they'll have to "play with" using their current millage rates.

That's not how it is supposed to work, and, IMHO, it demonstrates laziness on the part of the taxing authorities.

Perhaps the easiest thing the State could do would be to only allow the taxing authorities to increase their budgets by the rate of growth their county or municipality has seen from the previous year, plus the Consumer Price Index, or roughly 3%.

This way the taxing authorities could easily project their budgets, and "craziness" in the market, such as what we've all seen over the past couple of years, would not have such a dramatic affect on property taxes.

And while that may not be a perfect solution (even though I personally think it comes pretty darn close), it sure beats trying to reinvent the wheel.

I have heard this mentioned before and I have a question. What do we base the rate of growth on? For example, in Walton County our permenant population is "roughly" 40,000 people and that number has risen over the past years but not nearly as much as the amount of people that is "serviced" by this county through visitation and second home ownership. The "usage" of Walton County that needs services have grown much more then population. A case in point on how second home ownership affects services is with the recent fires.

If I am not mistaken the recent Seagrove fire affected little or no permenant resident's housing, besides being scared to death. However, we count on the fire department to put those fires out too. Also, we have roads and infrastrtucture that must be built and maintained to serve everyone that lives and visits (well more than a million people) Walton County.

I agree that our government needs to be frugal, As a matter of fact Walton County government (not counting special taxing districts, fire, education, etc.)has the third lowest millage rate in the state behind Monroe County (the Keys) and Okaloosa County. However, that isn't the whole story. In Monroe County, the Sherrif's Department is not funded through their County like it is in Walton County, and Okaloosa County has five cities to help shoulder the burden of costs while Walton County has DeFuniak Springs and Freeport leading to a greater burden on Walton County.

As the property tax issue gets decided make sure that you are aware of all proposals and how they will affect you as a resident or visitor and support the one you think is best. Check out the recent editorial in the Destin Log, there were comments by the Destin Fire District that with cuts they may not be able to pay for lifeguards . Luckily, in Walton County, they are paid through tourist development taxes.

By the way, in the case of replacing property tax with a 1% sales tax as is being pushed by Rep. Rubio, Walton County would collect $12 million additional dollars of that, we would have to send $6 million down to South Florida because of "profit sharing" based on population. Can anyone tell me where Mr. Rubio represents? South Florida

 

[SGB]

I am far from an authority on taxes, but I do know that if the current proposal goes through, Walton County's budget is substantially cut, and cut to the point that only essential services will be covered. You can forget about any Parks and Recreation improvements or any other type of improvement in services, and in some cases maintenance of already existing services.