Where are property Tax Dollars Going?

Your Tax Bill Belongs to Taxing Authorities
Property taxes are collected from more sources than just Pinellas County Government. In fact, the part of your tax bill that is set by the county is about 27% of your total bill depending on where you live.

Separate taxing authorities control the other parts of the bill and Pinellas County government has no control over those rates. Roll over the graphic to the right. It illustrates this breakdown.

Details of your property tax are shown on your annual TRIM notice.

Want to know more about taxing authorities? click here

Why Have They Gone Up?
      Location Location Location

Pinellas County is a great place to live and for a long time has been a pretty good secret. But as American coastal property becomes harder to find, investors and sun seekers were paying higher prices to live here. We also have very little open space to build new properties. These conditions combined to increase demands in the early part of this decade, which led to higher property values, which in turn led to higher property tax assessments.

Keep in mind that if your home is protected by the Homestead Exemption, your property tax amounts are not influenced by property value increases. Your increases are limited by state law to 3% per year. This affects approximately 75% of all residential properties in the county.

Millage
When property values increase and millage rates stay the same, some homeowners will pay more taxes for a comparable home than a neighbor who has been exempted for years under Homestead Exemption and the Save Our Homes cap.

The taxing rate, or “millage”, has decreased over 20% over the past two years (from 6.8 mills in 2006 to 5.4562 mills in 2008) and currently stands at its lowest level in over two decades.

What is millage? One mill is equal to $1 for every $1,000 of assess property value. It’s how the tax assessor calculates your property tax. You see this explained each year on your TRIM notice. The millage rate set by the County ony applies to 27% of your property tax bill. When the county raises or lowers the millage, that change applies only to the county's portion of your tax bill.

Realities for the County That We Can’t Change

Unfunded Legal Mandates & Court Orders
A large portion of the county’s budget covers programs or services required by state and federal law. The Board of County Commissioners has little discretion or control over these costs and/or level of services. In addition to mandates, federal or state courts may issue an order or ruling which requires the county to finance a particular program or service. The service then becomes a mandate for county funding.

Example of Mandates

• Clean Water Act
• National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES)
• Safe Drinking Water Act
• Endangered Species Act
• Clean Air Act
• Davis-Bacon Related Acts
• Family & Medical Leave Act
• Article V, Revision 7 Court-Related Expenses
• Juvenile Detention Facilities State Legislation
• Government Housing Trust Fund cap on distributions
• Growth Management Act
• Correction Facilities
• Building Codes, etc.

Offsetting Grants
Since 2002, County grants have been reduced by approximately $15 million. Why?  The main reason is that we are a large urban county.  Over the last several years, grant funding from Federal and State agencies focused more on development of rural and small urbanized areas. The County is literally “shut out” of these grant opportunities that were previously available.

Positive Choices for the County

Reserves
The County General Fund reserves have been increased from $31 million in FY02 to $109 million in FY08.  Like a personal savings account, these reserves provide a necessary pool of available money in case of a catastrophic event and allow the County to borrow money at a lower interest rate.

A Hurricane Safety Net.  Remember New Orleans in post-Katrina days? Though we may not want to consider the possibility, it is a reality that a storm of that magnitude could hit Pinellas County and we would face similar devastation. The government needs to be able to run in that situation and needs money for emergency services, rescue operations and more. We allocated much of the reserves to deal with such a catastrophic event. These dollars belong to the citizens of Pinellas County. If that dreaded day comes, we will be better able to meet the needs of our citizens and provide necessary relief.

Affordable Housing
The rising costs of real estate is market driven.  Although the County can’t dictate real estate values, we recognize the importance of our role in creating some affordable housing options.  Other areas of the country are facing this same crisis:  How to keep a community affordable for everyone who contributes to the function of that community.

Today in Pinellas County it is very difficult for workers to buy a home.  That includes teachers, firefighters, law enforcement, retail workers, health care workers, government support personnel and many, many other professionals critical to our county’s life. 

To help ease the burden, Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners has dedicated $15 million over the past two years to establish an Affordable Housing Trust Fund. This fund is specifically for creating and offering incentives to provide more affordable housing units within our county.

Increased Service Enhancements
Over the past years, the Board has heard from our community about the increasing needs in the area of human services.  More people are finding themselves without health coverage, housing costs are taxing family budgets, homelessness is on the rise and the elderly are in greater need of assistance.  Because of these growing demands, the Board of County Commissioners has increased the budget of the Health & Human Services Department from $36.8 million in 2002 to $61.7 million in 2008. 

Today, there is a greater emphasis on public safety and improved code enforcement in Building Inspection, Animal Services and Air Quality. Additionally, there have been improvements in the areas of hydrant access, local road paving, sidewalk construction, ADA sidewalk compliance, support for the East Lake Library and new soccer fields.