Upping the Mills: County property taxes may increase

The Gadsden County Board of Commissioners has tentatively adopted a millage rate of 9 mills, which could mean a tax hike for local property owners.

During the August 3 meeting, County Administrator Edward Dixon said the millage rate could be lowered going forward for the upcoming budget, but once they voted on a rate that night, could not be raised any further than the decided amount.

“If you want to give us some opportunity to play with some numbers, please give us a little millage rate to play with,” Dixon said. “If you want us to operate out of existing money, then that’s exactly what we will do.”

Dixon said he recommended that the board approve a higher millage rate - one that they could potentially lower, if the county was able to cut corners.

He provided the board with five options, the highest being 10 mills.

Part of the need for raising the mills, Dixon said, was due to the ongoing performance of the county’s maintenance on owned buildings.

“Our answer to problems up until now has been to ignore them and maybe they will go away,” said Dixon.

He noted the county needs more revenue from property taxes to make needed upgrades.

The July 1 taxable value provided by the Property Appraiser’s offices for operating purposes was $1,639,331,678 which is $120,679,067 more than last year’s taxable value of $1,518,652,611.

A mill equals $1 for every $1,000 of assessed property value.

The calculated rolled–back rate (ad valorem rate that generates the same amount of property tax revenue as the previous year) is 8.3742 mills, which is 0.5322 mills lower than the current millage rate of 8.9064.

According to information provided by the county administrator’s office, the county received $13,495,806 in property taxes during the current fiscal year.

Commission Chair Brenda Holt, and Commissioners Anthony Viegbesie, Kimblin NeSmith and Ronterious Green voted in favor of setting the millage rate at 9 mills, which could bring in up to $14,753,985 in revenue from property taxes for the county - a $1,258,179 increase from what the county is expected to bring in if the board decides to go with the rolled-back rate.

Florida Statutes requires that each taxing authority certifies to the property appraiser their prior year millage rates, the proposed millage rate, the rolled-back rate, and the date, time and place of the first public hearing to consider the proposed millage rate and tentative budget within 35 days of certification of taxable values.

Gadsden County’s taxable property values were certified on August 4.

The “Notice of Proposed Property Taxes” Truth in Millage - which includes this information - is set to be mailed to each property owner by the Property Appraiser’s Office no later than August 24.

The first public hearing will be held on Thursday, September 9 at 6 p.m.

The second public hearing will be held on Monday, September 20 at 6 p.m.

Erin Hill - Gadsden County News Service

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Upping the Mills: County property taxes may increase

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New alcohol laws set for Quincy

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