Property Appraisers Brace for Outcry over Assesments

By JAMES MILLER Staff Writer


It's only 3 percent, but it's 3 percent that's likely to come as an unwelcome surprise to tens of thousands of Volusia and Flagler counties' homeowners.

When property owners in the two-county area open proposed tax notices in August, an estimated 102,440 of those who benefit from Save Our Homes will get notice that, while their home's market values decreased, it's assessed value went up.

Called "recapture," the phenomenon is the product of a state Department of Revenue rule adopted after voters passed the Save Our Homes cap on annual homestead assessment increases in 1992.

What it means for a tax bill depends on property tax rates.

But, while it affected some homeowners last year, it is expected to affect a much larger number this year, with property appraisers' assessments reflecting decreased values as of Jan. 1.
And appraisers are bracing themselves to hear all about it.

"People don't like it," said Flagler County Property Appraiser Jay Gardner.
He said he had arranged to have photocopies of the rule requiring him to raise assessed values handy in his office to show people that he doesn't have any say in the matter.

"They come in here and say, 'Show me where you're allowed to do this,' " he said. "People don't understand it and don't think it's fair. I'm not judging whether it's fair or not."

Gov. Lawton Chiles and his Cabinet signed off on the rule in 1995.
Basically, it says that Save Our Homes operates in the same way whether values are going up or down.

Save Our Homes caps annual increases in assessed value for properties claimed as primary residences by their owners at 3 percent or the percentage change in the consumer price index, whichever is lower. With the recapture rule, the assessed value will go up by a maximum of 3 percent, even if a property's market value goes down -- until the assessed and market values are the same.

New homesteaders who haven't accumlated any savings under Save Our Homes won't be affected by the provision.
Lee County Property Appraiser Ken Wilkinson, who created Save Our Homes, said its proponents didn't want the rule.

"The concept of recapture never entered anybody's mind in the whole process," he said. "We tried to get them (the governor and Cabinet) to throw out the rule. We lost."
Wilkinson said he expects about 96,000 Lee County homestead-property owners will see assessment increases despite value decreases this year.

Based on first-blush assessment data, Gardner anticipates about 18,860 Flagler County homesteaders will have the same experience. Volusia County Property Appraiser Morgan Gilreath put that county's number at roughly 83,580.
The tax roll value of the 3 percent increase could exceed $400 million in the two counties.
A bill eliminating the provision failed to get through the Legislature this spring.

"People can start contacting their legislators for the 2009 session now, because this recapture creature will raise its ugly head again next year and it is ugly," Gilreath said.
But there is another side to the argument.

Some see it as a balancing out of the benefits that accrued to homestead-property owners as values soared during the early part of the decade.
Combined with tax rates, Save Our Homes has been blamed for shifting a disproportionate share of the property-tax burden to nonhomestead properties like businesses and second homes.

"It doesn't seem unfair to me," said Port Orange homeowner Harry Miller, a retiree from northern Ohio who has benefited from Save Our Homes since 2002.
Miller said he learned of the rule by doing online research after reading a newspaper story about declining values. He conceded his view might not be in the majority.
"Maybe not," he said. "Many people probably want to have the best of both worlds."

From The Daytona Beach News Journal