Jacksonville can balance the budget, take care of the pension problems, build new fire stations, provide longer library hours, and hire more cops without a millage increase and without a sales tax increase. The only thing needed is for our property appraiser to comply with the Florida Constitution, something which right now he does not do. Right now properties in Duval which are worth more than $400,000 are appraised at an average of only about 70% of full market value as required by the Florida Constitution. The City would have collected more than $90 million more this past year had the appraisals for the rich folks been accurate. The School Board also would have collected more than $90 million more. I have checked and rechecked. Properties at less than $400,000 in value here are all appraised at an average of 100% of what is required. No need for all the commotion. No need for millage increase. No need to skimp on libraries or cops or firefighters or pensions....The money is there. We just dont collect it from rich people here in Jacksonville. I am not going to speculate about WHY things are as they are. But I demand action. I am sure Republicans will pound me and accuse me of being a liar. And, when they discover that I am telling the truth, absolutely, then they will accuse me of class warfare. Not so. I just want everyone to comply with the law. Lets all play by the rules. Then Jacksonville will have the money we need. Want to pay teachers more money? Want to avoid the cuts Vitti is talking about? Want to provide better funding for after-school activities at our schools? Want to do this without a school millage increase? No problem. Enforce the law. Quit the Jacksonville tradition of under-assessing the rich folks. Want to solve the pension crisis (which was created by Austin, Delaney, and Peyton and which was NOT created by Alvin Brown?) Want to have longer library hours? Want to build more fire stations? Want to do these things without a millage increase and without a sales tax increase? We can do it. No problem. Enforce the law. Quit the Jacksonville tradition of under-assessing the rich folks. Does anyone think I made this up? Here is a way you can do your own test. Get a list (from your own source, any source, or from doing google) of all residential sales in Duval for the last 6 months or 7 months of 8 months of 9 months or 10 months of properties which sold for more than $1,000,000 or for some cut-off, maybe all properties at more than $500,000, or maybe, but this might be a big project, all properties at more than $400,000. Then enter these properties in the tax appraiser website search. You will find that these properties, prior to the sale, were appraised at FAR less than the sale price. Of course...the sale price IS the market value. THAT is the price correct for their appraisal other than the 15% wiggle room. You will also find that...AFTER the sale...even then, these properties were under-assessed. When you find a property under-assessed, then that means that for years prior and for years after, the city and the school board receive less money than the Constitution requires. Dont let people confuse you. My complaint has nothing to do with the save our homes cap or with the portability issue or with any exemption issues. If you own a million dollar house which sells for a million dollars but if your assessment was at only $500,000, then you have been avoiding taxes on roughly $10,000 each year. This is serious. This is very serious. We laugh and act as though this is amusing or we laugh and act like tax cheats are merely eccentric. But when a poor person steals $40, he goes to jail.... If even ten people in this city were to choose to make a stink about this, THAT would be enough. How about click like? How about click share? How about email or call elected officials? How about find a civic or political group who might take on this cause? How about help me persuade the City Council and School Board to take a stand in favor of compliance by the Property Assessor with the Florida Constitution? This is not complicated. My allegations can be quickly and easily verified. Many homes worth $1,000,000 are assessed for $500,000. Many Duval homes worth $2,000,000 are appraised at only $1,000,000. Let me carefully stress that a random list of properties which you then check for fair assessment is a waste of time...unless you have some competent to compute the accurate values to match against the property appraiser records. A better plan is to take a list of recent sales. The sales price is the fair value. You will see, if you check, that properties under $400,000 pretty much sell at the appraisers fair market value. But properties which sell at $400,000 or $1,000,000 or more...always sell at much more than appraised value. People with million-dollar fair market value homes in Duval County skate by with taxes based on the millage multiplied by a value of much much less than fair market value. I solicit some help from reasonable Duval people. As for other counties, well, you might want to double-check. I suspect the same funny business is going on in many other counties, but I have not checked any county other than Duval.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Apr 2014 23:13:39 +0000
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