Got your property tax bill, yet? You may not like what you see
MIAMI – The year is already starting to wind down, and you know what that means: The dreaded property tax bill has either already arrived or is on its way.
Trim (truth in millage) notices are arriving in mailboxes. The notices are a sneak preview into what your property taxes are likely to be for the year after counties and municipalities pass their budgets.
So, get ready. You may be in for a shock.
Depending on where you live, you may not like what you see.
As everyone's property values rise, so too do property taxes.
Like many homeowners, Carlina Camet of Pompano Beach dreaded seeing her trim notice arrive in the mail. "I knew it would be bad."
Her taxes are rising $500. "It's horrible. With inflation, gas prices my taxes, everything. It's a whole new world," she says.
If you have lived in your house for a while, you're at 3 percent. But if you moved to South Florida last year, and your property is reassessed in January, you are looking at a steep increase.
"There is sticker shock," said Broward Mayor Michael Udine. "I hear that from a lot of people."
She wanted the county to lower the rate.
"The consensus on the board seemed to be to take those additional dollars and put them in reserves. So that for next year -- when these rates go down because invariably they will … we don't have to raise the millage rate on them."
Miami-Dade County is looking at a site property tax reduction. Many cities in Miami-Dade County also are planning to reduce property taxes.
Broward homeowner Gayla Galinsky wishes Broward would do the same.
"I think they could pass it down to the people. Most people can't afford it, you know. Nobody, you know."
If you do not like what you see, remember there is an appeal process to protest your assessment. But time is running out.
The deadline is September 19 in Broward and in Miami-Dade.