The Monroe County Board of County Commissioners on Sept. 20 finalized the proposed $667 million fiscal year 2024 (FY24) budget, which represents a 17.5% tax hike — the biggest in decades that will be shouldered mainly by non-homesteaded properties.
Such properties include second homes, rental properties and commercial buildings that are not primary residences.
The budget includes the Board of County Commissioners, the constitutional officers, like the Sheriff’s Office, Tax Collector, Property Appraiser, Supervisor of Elections and Clerk of Court, and other appropriations for the Tourist Development Council, capital projects, and reserves.
Monroe County Administrator Roman Gastesi and Budget and Finance Director Tina Boan presented the budget with FY24 estimates of residential real estate trends, taxable property values, sales taxes, and state shared revenues, along with fund balance, reserves, and general fund.
“We are a little county with big-county problems plus 5 million visitors a year,” said Gastesi. “This budget continues to meet our increased service demands for our residents, sustainability for our future, public safety and more.”
Though lamenting the increase, some county officials pointed out how everything, nationwide, is more expensive.
With the finalized budget and countywide average property values, a homesteaded residential property owner with an average appraised taxable value of $484,735 will see an $11.24 monthly increase in their property tax for the FY24 year with the tentative budget.
Non-homesteaded properties will pay about $340 per $100,000 of taxable property value.
FY24 budget key points:
- Countywide millage rate: 2.7191 or $271.91 per $100,000 of value, most likely the lowest in Florida again (largely due to Monroe County’s higher-than-most property values).
- Reflects a property value increase with a total taxable value of $41.2 billion, another historical high. Property values have doubled in the past 10 years.
- Reflects continued investment in roads and bridges, resilience adaptation, facilities and public safety infrastructure. A number of notable capital projects are funded in whole or in large part with non-local funding and grants. Twelve notable projects with $106 million in total costs have $83 million in grant funding (78.5 percent of costs).
- Funds for expanded programs and public services, like the transit program, community and senior centers, affordable housing projects, library improvements, recreation programs and playground renovations.
- Funds higher operational costs like CPI-based increases for vendor contracts; higher cost of fuel, supplies and materials; higher utility and property insurance costs; and higher personnel costs. (South Florida regional inflation rate has stayed around 9 percent CPI, while the rest of the nation is trending down. Over the past two years, it has been around 19 percent.)
- Provides more than $2.2 million in funding for 30 community-based nonprofit organizations.
The budget will go into effect Oct. 1, 2023 through Sept. 30, 2024. The Monroe County Office of Budget and Finance provides coordination and development of the budget. More information is at monroecounty-fl.gov/budget.
