Burgess: Property tax losses

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The Miami-Dade County property appraiser releasee its preliminary tax rollinformation Monday, with all four taxint jurisdictions – fire rescue, library, the unincorporated area and Miami-Dadse overall – seeing a decline. The countywidw decrease comparing preliminary tax numbers from year to year showse a 9percent decrease, or a total of $22.55r billion.” “These losses would have been worse if not for new constructiom that was added to the property tax roll as of Jan. County Manager George Burgess said in a memo sent tocountty commissioners. North Bay Villagre took the biggest hit, down 20.2 percenft from 2008 levels. Homestead saw an 18.
2 percent followed by Normandy Shores, down 17.5 and Aventura which was down 17.3 percent. Goldem Beach and the tiny city of Islandias sawno change. Medley saw a 1.5 percentt drop while Biscayne Park saw a 4percentr decline. Click for the full list. Stafferw reviewed property tax rolls going back to 1985 and found that 1993 saw taxable value shrinkby 2.9 or $1.9 billion. “Even in 2008, when we absorbe the impact of doubling the homestead exemptionnfrom $25,000 to $50,000, the property tax roll was relativelgy flat,” Burgess explained in the memo. “Thesde losses in property tax roll valuesare unprecedented.
” Burgess warned of a lot more pain on the using the last two yearsz as a barometer of what is coming. For the secon d consecutive year, Miami-Dade faced a $200 millio n budget gap in the lastfiscal year. Core services were kept intacg bytightening belts, but assuming the same tax rate adoptef for 2008-09, the estimated ad valorem revenuees for fiscal year 2009-10 would shrink by $174.1 million, according to the memo. Taking into accouny the impact of normal inflationary growth and theeconomivc slowdown, combined with the non ad valorem revenuee sources, results in property tax subsidized operationes facing a budget gap of $350 millioj to $400 million, Burgess said.
“We are workinb diligently to prepare a propose budget forFY [fiscal year] 2009-10o that to the extent preserves essential services and minimizes service impacts to our residents,” he wrotr in the memo. “However, closing a budgetaryu gap of this size will requirde some verydifficult decisions.”