Where Do Property Taxes Go?

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

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 three years (from 6.8 mills in 2006 to 5.4562 mills in 2009) 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 taxing authorities calculate your property tax. You see this explained each year on your TRIM notice. The millage rate set by the County only 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 (BCC) 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
Maintaining adequate reserves is key to the County’s ability to deal with potential emergencies and unforeseen events such as fuel price increases. Like a personal savings account, these reserves provide a necessary pool of available money in case of unanticipated events. The adopted FY09 budget reflects a projected reserve level which meets the Board’s 15% policy target.

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 law enforcement, emergency services, rescue operations and more. Unfortunately, federal and state funds are usually made available on a reimbursement basis which means that the County needs to have funding available up front to deal with a potential crisis. Federal and state funds often take several years to receive. For example, funds for reimbursing the costs of the hurricanes of 2004 were not received until approximately 4 years later.

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 nearly $20 million over the past three years (including over $4 million in the FY09 adopted budget) 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.

Improving our Performance
The new fiscal realities make it even more important that we continue to use all the tools at our disposal to make government more effective, efficient, and customer-focused. The County will continue to integrate strategic planning (Vision Pinellas) and performance management with our business processes. Training courses such as Strategic Planning, Facilitation Skills, Process Mapping & Improvement, Performance Measurement, and others help to reinforce this direction.

The citizen survey conducted in FY08 provided valuable feedback on County services which aided in determining priorities during this difficult budget year. The County continues to be actively involved in the Florida Benchmarking Consortium and the International City/County Management Association’s Center for Performance Measurement. This enables us to benchmark the County’s performance in key areas to other high performing local governments.