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County Property Values Decline

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By MIKE SALINERO

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 1, 2008

TAMPA - TAMPA - Tax reform and one of the worst housing slumps in Florida history joined forces to drive down Hillsborough County property values last year, the first year-to-year decline since 1992.

Countywide taxable values as of Jan. 1 slipped 4.23 percent compared with the previous year, from $87.39 billion to $83.69 billion. The main reason for the drop was Amendment 1, a property tax-cutting initiative passed in January that retroactively took more than $6.5 billion in property value off the tax rolls.

During the same period, Tampa's taxable value declined by less than 1 percent, from $29.45 billion to $29.18 billion.

Proposed property taxes sent to homeowners in August are based on these values.

Market values in the county also slipped, but by a smaller margin of 2.75 percent. The market values, based on property transactions last year, were buoyed by $2.9 billion in new construction that came on line last year. Most of that value was in commercial buildings which typically lag behind residential construction.

The drop in property values brought an end to a remarkable run-up in real estate that some observers thought would never end. Since 1999, taxable values in Hillsborough have risen 152 percent. Market values did even better, rising 163 percent from 1999 to 2007.

But the numbers released Monday by Property Appraiser Rob Turner's office were no surprise. Preliminary estimates released June 1 were not far off the mark, although the county and city did a little better than expected.

Hillsborough County will gross about $8.5 million more in property taxes than was originally estimated when County Administrator Pat Bean crafted her proposed budget in May.

Of that amount, however, the county has to transfer $2.75 million to community redevelopment areas, mostly in Tampa. Property tax increases in these areas are plowed back into the neighborhood for community improvements, such as sewers, drainage and sidewalks.

The county also saw a $230,000 decline in property taxes in unincorporated areas, and must plan for another $600,000 reduction for residents who pay taxes early or who lower their taxes by challenging their valuations.

Finally, worsening economic conditions have caused the county to adjust its expected sales tax collections for this year downward by about $1.7 billion.

When all is said and done, the county gets a bump of about $3.5 million more than what was estimated last month.

While helpful, the extra money won't make much difference in a county government looking at 100 layoffs and $87 million in cuts for next year's budget.

"It's not going to be enough to restore any significant amount of the cuts we have been making over the last couple of months," said county budget director Eric Johnson.

Tampa will collect $1 million more in property taxes than was estimated in the appraiser's preliminary numbers a month ago. That's still $2 million less than the city collected last year.

Part of the $1 million will go to the city's community redevelopment area and can't be used for the overall city budget, said budget officer Jim Stefan.

"One of the reasons for the increase is that the new construction number is a little over $1 billion, which is a very good number," Stefan said. "A lot of that new construction is in the community redevelopment areas."

Reporter Mike Salinero can be reached at (813) 259-8303 or msalinero@tampatrib.com

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