July figures show slight declines from June preliminary estimates for Venice, North Port and Longboat Key
Editor’s note: This article was updated on the afternoon of July 11 to provide more information about the change in the City of Sarasota’s taxable property value and its impact on city revenues.
With the Sarasota County Commission on June 21 having directed County Administrator Tom Harmer to make every effort to find more money to try to balance the 2018 fiscal year budget, Harmer had some good news last week from the Property Appraiser’s Office: The final taxable values for this year are up 8.25%, instead of the preliminary increase of 8.15% announced in late May.
That was the news he delivered by email to the County Commission on June 29.
The change, Harmer noted, will produce approximately $160,000 more in revenue for the county’s General Fund.
The 2017 county taxable value estimate sent to the Florida Department of Revenue was $54,564,613,025, according to the list that Brian Loughrey, the administrative director of the Property Appraiser’s Office, provided The Sarasota News Leader on June 29, at the publication’s request.
The City of Sarasota had good news, too: Its overall property value climbed to 9.77%, compared to the June 1 preliminary increase of 9.67%.
City of Sarasota Finance Director Kelly Strickland told the City Commission on June 20 that the value of 1 mill is $9,297,928, while the value of one-eighth of a mill is $1,162,241. By the News Leader’s calculations, the uptick in value of 0.1% should equate to approximately $93,000 more for the city in its taxable value. Strickland said during the commission’s July 10 budget discussion that, at the current millage rate of 3.1728, the change will mean an additional $28,189 in ad valorem tax revenue for the 2018 fiscal year budget.
Strickland had cautioned the board on June 20 not to expect much of a change from June 1 to July 1.
The proposed General Fund budget for the City of Sarasota in the 2018 fiscal year is $66,335,415. During that June 20 budget workshop, staff talked of several options for closing a projected gap of $952,958 in the General Fund, which largely is composed of ad valorem tax revenue. One option, Strickland pointed out then, was the potential of raising the millage rate from 3.1728 to 3.2758. City Manager Tom Barwin noted that that would mean “roughly a dollar a month” increase in the tax bill for someone whose house is valued at $200,000.
The City Commission is scheduled to hold its next budget workshop on July 10.
The total estimated taxable value for the property in the City of Sarasota is $9,644,365,267, based on the July 1 figures. In 2016, the final taxable value — following adjustments related to property owner’s challenges — was $8,779,643,556.
The School Board also saw the 2017 estimated value of its property rise a bit more between the Property Appraiser Office’s June 1 figure and the July 1 list provided to the state. The July figure was 7.33%, whereas the preliminary figure in June was 7.09%.
On the other hand, the July figures for the Cities of North Port and Venice, as well as the Town of Longboat Key, declined slightly from June to July. The preliminary estimate for North Port in June was an increase of 12.75%; for July, it was 12.6%, based on the News Leader’s calculations. Nonetheless, North Port realized the biggest jump in estimated values year-over-year of all the county’s local governments.
The 2017 estimated taxable value of property in North Port is $3,674,917,731.
For Venice, the July value is 8.2%, a slight drop from 8.26% in June. Venice’s July figure is $3,817,208,295.
Longboat Key’s July estimate is 3.88%, compared to the June figure of 4.05%. The estimated value of property in the Town of Longboat Key is $4,051,801,635.