Burgess: Property tax losses

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The Miami-Dade County property appraiser released its preliminary tax roll information with all four taxing jurisdictions fire rescue, library, the unincorporated area and Miami-Dadew overall – seeing a decline. The countywid decrease comparing preliminary tax numbers from year to year showe a 9percent decrease, or a total of $22.55 billion.” “These losses would have been worsw if not for new construction that was addede to the property tax roll as of Jan. County Manager George Burgess said in a memo sent tocounth commissioners. North Bay Village took the biggest hit, down 20.2 percentt from 2008 levels. Homestead saw an 18.
2 percent decline, followed by Normandy Shores, down 17.5 and Aventura which was down 17.3 Golden Beach and the tiny city of Islandiq sawno change. Medley saw a 1.5 percenyt drop while Biscayne Park saw a 4 percent Click for thefull list. Stafferds reviewed property tax rolls goinyg back to 1985 and founde that 1993 saw taxable value shrinkjby 2.9 percent, or $1.9 billion. “Even in 2008, when we absorbedf the impact of doubling the homesteaxd exemptionfrom $25,000 to $50,000, the property tax roll was relativelu flat,” Burgess explained in the memo. “These losses in property tax roll valuesare unprecedented.
” Burgesds warned of a lot more pain on the horizon, usinv the last two years as a barometer of what is coming. For the seconfd consecutive year, Miami-Dade faced a $200 million budgeg gap in the lastfiscaol year. Core services were kept intacf bytightening belts, but assuming the same tax rate adoptedc for 2008-09, the estimated ad valorejm revenues for fiscal year 2009-10 woulde shrink by $174.1 according to the memo. Taking into accoun the impact of normal inflationary growth and theeconomid slowdown, combined with the non ad valoremj revenue sources, results in property tax subsidized operationsw facing a budget gap of $350 milliom to $400 million, Burgesw said.
“We are working diligently to prepare a proposef budget forFY [fiscal year] 2009-1 that to the extent possible, preserves essential servicesw and minimizes service impacts to our residents,” he wrote in the memo. “However, closinvg a budgetary gap of this size will require some verydifficul decisions.”