County mulls lowering property tax rate for 2007

The property tax rate in Collier County may be going down for fiscal 2007.

At a budget workshop Thursday, county staff members said they were recommending dropping the tax rate 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 drop is occurring even though the total county budget is going up by 20 percent, from $984 million to just less than $1.2 billion. The county would be giving back about $22 million under this proposal.

Taxable property values increased by 25.6 percent in the past year, so even with the millage reduction, many people will still end up paying the same or more property taxes in 2007 as they did in 2006.

Collier Budget Director Mike Smykowski said it was tough to estimate if people would pay more or less in total property taxes in 2007 if the lower millage rate is adopted.

It will depend on what type of home someone owns, and how much their property values increased from the previous year, Smykowski said.

Kevin Lilly, a tax roll analyst with the Collier County Property Appraiser’s Office, said the rollback will result in a decrease of about $125 in the average property tax bill.

The average home in Collier now costs $436,000, Lilly said.

With a millage rate of $3.59 per $1,000 of taxable property, a homeowner who owned that house would pay $1,568 in property taxes. Under a millage rate of $3.90 per $1,000 the property tax bill would be $1,693, Lilly said.

The millage rate for 2007 won’t be approved by commissioners until their July 25 meeting.

At least one commissioner, Jim Coletta, is expected to oppose a millage reduction. Coletta wants the county to put all its revenue toward road construction and believes rolling back the tax rate hurts that effort.

Coletta is urging residents to show up at the second day of the commission’s budget workshop today and speak against lowering the tax rate. Public comment is scheduled for 1 p.m. at the commission chambers in the county government complex at the corner of Airport-Pulling Road and U.S. 41 East.

On Thursday, Coletta said the county couldn’t count on bringing in the amount of property taxes every year that the county is getting this year.

The No. 1 priority has to be getting the roads fixed while the county is still flush with revenue, Coletta said.

Commissioner Tom Henning is at the other end of the spectrum. He has been pushing to lower the property tax rate for the past year.

Henning has called for the county to lower, or roll back, the tax rate so people pay the same amount in property taxes each year.

Thursday was the first day of budget hearings for county leaders. They will continue today, and might go into Monday.

But county officials expect the hearings to conclude today.

Thursday included a general overview of the money going to the state attorney, public defender, airport authority, administrative services, transportation services, public utilities, public services, community development, debt service, and management offices as a part of Pelican Bay.

Officials in each department went before the commissioners and justified the money they are requesting within their budgets.

The preliminary budget sets aside $3.9 million for the County Attorney’s Office, about $100 million for administrative services, $47.5 million for public services, $56.9 million for transportation services, $61 million for community development and environmental services and $119.2 million for public utilities.

Today, the constitutional officers go before commissioners. Financing also will be discussed for the county manager’s office before the commissioners hear public comment.

Other highlights Thursday included:

-- Southwest Florida Chief Circuit Judge Hugh Hayes calling on the county to find more space for court officials. Collier expects to get five new judges within the next year, and Hayes fears there isn’t enough space at the Collier courthouse to accommodate them.

-- Commissioners wondering why a plan to increase the government building impact fee wasn’t factored into the 2007 budget. Commissioners will be asked to double the impact fee at their July 25 meeting, but the budget doesn’t calculate any increase in revenue.

County officials said they don’t know how soon the increase will result in extra money. Joe Schmitt, the county’s Community Development and Environmental Services Administrator, said the county might not be collecting the extra revenue until well into fiscal 2007.

The 2007 fiscal year begins Oct. 1.

-- Collier Airport Authority Executive Director Theresa Cook said she didn’t know where the county was in discussions with Everglades City taking over Everglades Airpark.

Cook said she hadn’t heard from Everglades City officials since right before Hurricane Wilma struck in 2005.

The county wants the city to take over the airport. But Everglades City officials have been preoccupied with repairing damage to the city since Wilma hit.

Everglades City Hall was seriously damaged by the storm.