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Sarasota County Tax Break |
SARASOTA -- Sarasota County taxpayers got some good news Wednesday thanks to rising property values.
County commissioners agreed to reduce the millage rate by .40 mill for the coming fiscal year.
The action came as an amendment to an initial resolution to reduce the rate by only .25 mill.
The initial reduction would have resulted in a so-called aggregate millage of 3.8439 for the coming year, opposed to the 4.0939 for the current year. Reducing the millage by .40 brought that amount down to 3.6939.
A mill equals $1 per $1,000 of assessed property value. This means the owner of a home assessed at $125,000 with a $25,000 homestead exemption would pay about $370 in property taxes with the new rate.
This tax money is used for the General Fund, the Transportation Fund, Environmentally Sensitive Land Acquisition Funds, Debt Service Funds, the Sarasota County Mosquito Management Fund and various countywide districts.
Tax responsibilities for property owners don't end there, of course.
In addition, they must pay for schools and other special districts.
Residents in North Port and Venice must pay city property taxes as
well, while Englewood residents served by the Englewood Fire District
and the Englewood Water District will be paying taxes for those
services.
The .25-mill reduction was originally suggested at budget workshops
held in June. However, commissioners decided Wednesday that a deeper
reduction would help property owners faced with increased taxes due to
astronomically escalating property values.
An even deeper reduction of .50 mill was considered also. But upcoming
spending issues -- such as the sheriff's request for more jail beds
along with expenses associated with proposed schedule extensions for
SCAT bus lines -- contributed to bringing the reduction back to .40.
Tuesday's vote was unanimous. Commissioner Shannon Staub was absent due to illness.
Preliminary tax notices are due to go out in August.
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