I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving and, for a moment, were able to put aside the hurricanes and your recently arrived property tax bill. Thanks to “Save Our Homes” and some senior exemptions, my bill this year was up 1.75% and up 10.9% since 2019. Not bad, really, and I can live with that. The problem is the overall rate of inflation, unanticipated hurricane repairs, and the 100+% rise in homeowners insurance since 2019. This is more problematic for the average Manatee County homeowner, and it is making life more difficult to make ends meet in 2024.
Exacerbating the situation is the fact that Manatee County surpluses have routinely exceeded $100 million dollars annually over the last several years, and the year-to-date surplus through July is a whopping $414.6 million versus $399.6 million in property taxes collected. This raises the question why are we paying so much when all of the funds are not being spent, but sitting in a money market fund providing no benefit to Manatee County citizens or economy ?
Honing in on the individual taxing districts, a new levy from the school district, which was approved by the voters in November, was $356.00 vs. nothing last year. Additionally, the non-ad valorem fire district taxes were up 7.4% in 2024 and 24% since 2019. Does anybody attend a fire district meeting to find out why the increase was so dramatic this year ?
In summary, the recently reformulated Manatee County Commission needs to take a hard look at the surplus and cash pile and do something like enact a substantial variable property tax credit for 2025 ( let’s say $100 million) to begin to address the economic realities of life in our fair county.
Mike Meehan, CFA, MBA
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