Guest Op/Ed: You're Being Overcharged on Property Taxes

As property taxpayers, you might be interested to know that when you write that big property tax check to Manatee County, you are being overcharged. How do I know this? Because I read the audited Comprehensive Annual Financial Report and interim financial statements prepared by the county clerk, and they show surpluses of $84.0 million, $98.5 million, $108.0 million and $141.2 million respectively, for the four years ending in September, 2019.

For the first nine months of fiscal 2020, the surplus is $168.5 million. Even if the county runs $15.0 million deficits for each of the next three months (which is twice what the monthly deficits have been from March through June), Manatee County will still end up with a $100 million surplus for fiscal 2020.

As a result, total cash is piling up on the county’s balance sheet and now equals $948.2 million, while unrestricted cash stands at $540.9 million. According to Florida statute 129.01 c1 and c2, total cash reserves are limited to 30 percent of the prior year operating expense. Applying this guideline to FY 2019 expense of $683.2 million yields a reserve cap of $204.9 million. Needless to say, Manatee County’s total reserves and unrestricted reserves are way, way above this cap and are flagrantly non-compliant with Florida statute.

By the way, with the assistance of my son Patrick, we conducted a survey of CAFR reports filed by Florida counties for the 2019 fiscal year and out of the 50 counties studied, found that only Pasco and Manatee County were non-compliant with the 30 percent cash reserve cap. Pasco had a very small overage of $8.9 million, while Manatee County had a mind-blowing $354.8 million of unrestricted cash above Florida statute.

At the commissioner’s budget meeting last week, Steven Jonsson was absolutely correct when he said that the county has accumulated too much taxpayer money and needs to address this issue at the upcoming budget meetings. I hope the other commissioners are listening to Mr. Jonsson and that people who read this article can get involved and contribute ideas to solve this problem.

Some of my ideas involve a 20 percent property tax credit for 2021, waiver of December sewer/waste utility bills and immediate increased financial support for our volunteer agencies and charities who are helping people in Manatee County cope with COVID 19 and the loss of their jobs. Click here to contact county commissioners and let them know how you feel about this issue.