Glades Commission Prepares To Lower Taxes?

Tentative County Property Tax Will Mean Slightly Lower Tax Bills

MOORE HAVEN, FL. -- The Glades county commissioners Tuesday morning, in an election year, voted to tentatively lower property tax rates for Glades county real estate owners on the county's portion of the tax bill. The members adopted  tentative millage rate of 9.1367 ($9.13 per thousand dollars of property valuation) for the General Fund and Transportation Trust Fund and 1.95 for the Law Enforcement MSTU, the same rates as last year for a total of $11.08 per thousand.

The total county tax if later approved would mean county tax bills of about 1.11% in taxes of the total taxable value of all real estate, which is the assessed value less any exemptions. School board taxes would be additional and usually doubles the taxes due.

If the Board had chosen to require the same dollar funding as last year, the rates would have been
9.4637 and 2.0198 respectively, known as the “roll back” rate. The roll back rate is the millage that would bring in the same tax dollars to the county based on the revised and lower property valuation by the county's property appraiser for 2012.

Because the Board kept the millage rate the same as last year, and property values overall are down this
year, most taxpayers will see a decrease of a few dollars in the county tax portion of their tax billing
in November. The other major proportion of property taxes is the school board's millage rate which will about double the total tax bill.

The date proposed for the county's tentative budget hearing is Wednesday, September 12, 2012 and the date proposed for the final budget hearing is Wednesday, September 19, 2012, both at public hearings where the public may speak.