Commissioners agree to lower property taxes

Collier commissioners have committed to slashing the property tax rate in the county for fiscal year 2007.

At a budget hearing today the commissioners unanimously agreed the property tax rate for next year would be lowered to $3.59 per $1,000 of taxable property. For the past five years, the property tax rate has been $3.90 per $1,000 of taxable property.

The estimated savings would be $28.60 per $100,000 of taxable value.

"This was the first bite out of the apple," said County Manager Jim Mudd. "A second bite might still be coming.

The commissioners are still looking into the possibility of dropping the millage rate even more. But that decision won't be made until at least July.

County staff recommended the property tax reduction. Originally commissioners were split with Commissioner Jim Coletta opposing any millage reduction and Commissioner Tom Henning pushing for an even greater millage reduction than staff recommended.

In the end, the five commissioners agreed to stick with the staff recommendation for now. Mudd will go back into the budget and look at whether any more cuts can be made.

Coletta said he realized that he was the only one who wanted to keep the property tax rate the same, so he gave up that fight.

"I can see this is the way it's going to be," Coletta said.

Coletta had urged the commissioners to keep the millage rate the same so they could have as much money as possible for road construction projects.

Henning said the county was in good financial shape with a property tax cut. He objected to the idea that a tax cut meant less funding for roads.

"We can hold our heads high and say 'yeah we cut your taxes, but look at all the great things we're doing'," Henning said.

The county has significantly increased the money for roads in the past few years, and a lot of funding is still going to roads, he said.