Friday, July 10, 2009

Both Middle Keys municipalities are aiming to meet a rollback figure when it comes to setting property taxes this summer.

The City of Marathon will hold its first budget meeting on Monday night, and the City of Key Colony Beach will hold its second such workshop on Thursday morning. Officials from both cities say that rollback, which is the property tax level that will collect the same amount of money as the previous year, is within their sights.

Rollback, however, is not what it used to be. Due to slumping property values, the rollback tax rate would actually mean a higher assessment per $1,000 of property value than owners saw on the previous year's bill.

Whether or not an individual property owner will pay more in taxes depends on how much the value of their land changed. A piece of property that lost a lot of value may not feel the affects of a slightly higher tax rate.

Properties that claim a homestead exemption under the Florida Save Our Homes Act, which have caps on how much the taxable value can be increased each year, are a different story. Property owners can get a homestead exemption if they declare the home as their primary residence.

Even though the actual value of a homesteaded property may have dropped, the typically lower taxable value is still likely to increase up to 3 percent to catch up to the actual assessed value. Those properties could see a sizeable increase since both the taxable value and assessment per $1,000 of property value will rise.

Marathon saw its total property value drop from $2.8 billion in 2008 to $2.2 billion in 2009 while Key Colony Beach dropped from almost $796 million to $636 million, according to the Property Appraiser's Office.

Marathon City Manager Clyde Burnett said this year's rollback figure comes in at 1.88, which would mean a property owner would pay $1.88 per $1,000 of assessed value. Last year's millage rate was 1.50.

On Monday night, the Marathon City Council will approve a tentative property tax rate which will act as the starting point for the summer's budget workshops. Once a tentative rate is approved, it can be lowered, but cannot easily be increased.

Burnett said he planned on meeting with department heads this week in order to prepare for the Monday night meeting. He was not sure what the initial property tax rate would be set at, but said he is confident it can be whittled down to the rollback level.

Key Colony Beach is in the middle of budget workshops, and Mayor Ron Sutton said the rate is currently hovering around the rollback rate of 1.41.

"We are planning on meeting rollback," Sutton said. "We've tightened some strings."

That topic was brought up during Marathon's budget discussions last year. Vice Mayor Don Vasil wanted to see the millage rate lowered to take some of the sting off of homesteaded properties. He eventually was the lone vote against the budget when it was not lowered any further.

Marathon Mayor Mike Cinque noted at the time that homesteaded properties have been getting a break in property taxes since the program was started in the 1990s, and that once the housing market turns around those property owners would again enjoy the benefits.