More and more I’m convinced that our elected officials are out of touch with the residents of our county. The St. Lucie County Commission is prepared to advertise a millage rate (for FY 2010-11) that will generate total property tax revenue equal to that collected for the current fiscal year. However, this action will result in a tax increase for many and perhaps most residents.
The current millage rate of 6.170 mills is set to increase to 6.850 mills. Unless your property assessment went down by 3.3% for a home assessed at $75,000, 5.0% for a home assessed at $100,000 or 6.6% for a home assessed at $150,000, your taxes will go up. I’ve done the math and have it available for your review (by clicking on this link).
If you are fortunate to have a home with an assessed value of $150,000 and it remained unchanged, your taxes will only go up by $68.00. The increase is $17.00 for houses with assessed values of $75,000 and $34.00 for those of $100,000.
It just seems illogical and insensitive to increase taxes when we over 17,000 persons are unemployed in our county while others have quit looking or are working 2 or more part-time jobs to make ends meet. Families and businesses are hurting and don’t need the extra cost of government. The dollar amount of the increase may seem small, but add it to the proposed increases from other political jurisdictions (with other costs of living) and you start to understand the concern.
County Commissioners, please reconsider this millage rate increase. It is not only the political thing to do, but it is also the right thing to do.
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This post was updated using the millage rate the County Commission set at its July 29th meeting.