A three-legged stool! and taxes

Ed Brimner

By ED BRIMNER Property Appraiser

My staff and I often hear comments such as, “I hope you don’t raise my taxes!” or “Why did you increase my property taxes?”
The simple answer is, “The Wakulla County Property Appraiser cannot raise or lower taxes.” However, I know it’s a little more complicated than that.
Imagine tax administration as a 3-legged stool. Each leg has its job and is independent of the other two. It takes three independent offices to do their part before property taxes can be collected in Wakulla County.
• The first leg is the Wakulla County Property Appraiser’s Office; we appraise property and cannot raise or lower taxes nor can we collect taxes. We are independent to prevent any influence by taxing authorities to increase or decrease assessments.
• The second leg is made up of taxing authorities which consists of the Wakulla County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC), the Wakulla County School Board, the City of St Marks, and Northwest Florida Water Management District; they determine tax rates (millage) but cannot assess properties, nor can they collect taxes.
• The third leg is the Tax Collector. The Tax Collector’s staff collects and disperses taxes; however, they cannot assess property, nor can they levy taxes.

This is a necessary separation of powers established by our Florida Constitution to assure fair and equitable assessments and subsequent taxation for the funding of county and municipal services such as schools, police, fire & rescue, roads, parks, etc.
If property values dropped and the Property Appraiser reduced assessed values accordingly, taxing authorities are authorized by State law to raise tax rates to get the same revenue they had the prior year without calling it a tax increase (FS 200.065 and Florida Administrative Code 12D-17.0035). See the example at top.
The tax rate levied by taxing authorities are determined by the spending needs of the taxing authority (BOCC, School Board, St Marks, etc.).
In Jan 1, 2022, Wakulla County had a total taxable value of over $1.7 billion dollars. The BOCC set a tax rate of 8.2 mills and raised almost $14 million dollars in ad valorem taxes.
On Jan 1, 2023 (the 2023 Tax Bill), Wakulla County’s taxable value increased to approximately $2.2 billion dollars, a 22.8% increase. To raise the same amount of tax dollars, the millage rate would be reduced to 6.4 mills. However, inflation will almost certainly prevent a complete rollback to last year’s taxes.
Below are examples of different millage rates commissioners could use in determining the 2023 tax rates. The same exercise will be done by each taxing authority.

The Property Appraiser has completed assessments for 2023 with a new total taxable value of $2.2 Billion dollars. Our taxing authorities will soon be advertising budget meeting dates to determine the next millage rates. The Tax Collector will send tax bills and begin collecting taxes in November. The Florida Constitution has purposely separated taxing authority to ensure we all work together for the common good of citizens.
Please give me a call if you have questions or comments. My goal is Fair and Equitable Assessments!

Ed Brimner is Wakulla County Property Appraiser. He can be contacted at edbrimner@mywakullapa.com or (850) 926-0500.