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CORRECTION:

ajm3s

When I did the study, the purpose was to understand where Marco Island’s Millage Rate stands in comparison to all other communities in the State of Florida. I used information from 378 communities because I did not want the study to discriminate by area, poor vs. rich or cost of operations. The study did include population. Marco Island has numerous expensive homes but is not the most exclusive community in Florida.

The resulting fact was that Marco Island is blessed with the 3rd lowest combined City/County Millage Rate or Ad-Valorem Tax Rate in the State of Florida. I did investigate the Non-Ad-Valorem fees of the two cities with lower Ad-Valorem Taxes. One of those two cities receives 47% of its budget from Non-Ad-Valorem Fees and the other city receives 60% of its budget from Non-Ad-Valorem Fees.

The average City/County Millage Rate of the 378 cities used was 19.8277 and Marco Island was at 11.3835. The highest community was Biscayne Park (Miami Dade) at 25.7760. Most communities in the Miami-Dade area have similar Millage Rates to Biscayne Park. There were two cities that I did not include that showed a Millage Rate of 45.

Millage Rates are a common denominator because that is the multiplier that all communities use. Millage Rate X Taxable Value = Ad-Valorem Tax.

Millage Rates should not be the only factor on how we judge our city; you unfortunately make accusations which are with little merit or basis. Citizens raised issues about water and sewer rates and we are going through a Cost of Service study.